China to lift controls on financial news services

China on Thursday agreed to repeal regulations requiring foreign financial news services to disclose confidential information to a state-owned competitor, thus resolving a dispute brought against China at the World Trade Organization last year by the US, EU and Canada, the Wall Street Journal reported. Under the current laws, financial news services are not allowed to sell data or news articles in China without a license from the China Economic Information Service, a division of the government-run Xinhua news agency. Companies are required to provide data on customers, software and delivery operations in order to receive the license. But foreign media firms have said they should not have to provide proprietary information to a competitor. Under the new agreement, which will take effect in June, foreign media companies will be required to apply for a license from an independent regulator, who will be prohibited from sharing the information.