英语市场调研分析，Factiva Dow Jones
China to license foreign direct sellers' staff.
BEIJING, Oct 21 (Reuters) - China will license sales staff employed by foreign direct sales companies, enabling them to sell door-to-door again six months after Beijing unveiled a sweeping ban on such sales, the Economic Daily said on Wednesday.
The right to license sales staff applies only to foreign companies which had won government approval to convert their operations into conventional retail businesses, the report said, quoting State Internal Trade Bureau spokesman Huang Hai.
The report identified Avon and Mary Kay Cosmetics as two of four foreign direct sellers which had been approved to operate as retail stores in response to the ban on direct sales China imposed in April.
The firms were required to put prices on their products and set up schemes to provide post-sale service and allow consumers to change or return goods, Huang said.
Under rules hammered out by the trade commission, staff employed by approved foreign direct sellers must show their licenses while selling and sell only to the final user of a consumer product, the spokesman said.
The prices of products sold door-to-door must be the same as those sold at stores and the firms had to bear full legal responsibility for sales staff, Huang added.
The sales staff must pass a national qualification appraisal by the end of 1999, and those failing to pass the appraisal will be banned from selling from the beginning of 2000, he said.
China in April banned all forms of direct selling to curb fraud and other abuses after a wave of Chinese pyramid schemes bilked tens of thousands of citizens.
The ban sparked rioting and looting that left 10 people dead and more than 100 injured in the central province of Hunan, where many sales people were left holding overpriced goods which they bought with their life savings.
The ban also forced U.S. direct selling giants - including Avon, Mary Kay, Amway Corp and Sara Lee Corp - to suspend their China operations. Those firms and the U.S. government argued they had invested millions of dollars and followed China's rules.