| Vice-Minister of Commerce Ma Xiuhong :Chinese Foreign Trade Faces More Challenges After WTO Entry |
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Chinese imports and exports are confronted with severe challenges in its first year of World Trade Organization (WTO) membership, due to the decline of global economy and the drop in international trade growth, Ma Xiuhong, vice-minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), said on June 5 in Dalian.
Ma told the first national conference on fair trade which opened in Dalian on June 5 that to meet the challenges, domestic enterprises should completely understand the rules of international trade, and learn to protect their legal rights and interests under WTO rules.
Ma also hoped domestic trade companies would try to improve their sense of self-protection by making active responses to foreign anti-dumping suits.
According to Ma, anti-dumping and protective measures have become the tools of many countries in protecting their trade balances. Anti-dumping investigations are rising fast. In 2001, anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and protective measures investigations conducted by WTO members soared 46 percent to 428 cases, compared with 293 in 2000.
China had become the biggest victim of anti-dumping and protective measures in the world, said Ma, noting that by the end of this April, 32 countries and regions had opened 494 cases of anti-dumping and protective measures investigations targeting over4,000 Chinese exports.
Ma said 467 cases were concerned with anti-dumping, while another 27 were concerned with protective measures, and these investigations affected about 15 billion U.S. dollars of China's exports. Ma believed such investigations would continue to rise for a long time.
In March, the United States announced protective measures on imported steel, affecting 370 million U.S. dollars of steel imports from China.
Many developing countries had begun to target China with anti-dumping investigations in recent years, such as investigations started by Turkey in May on China's pencil and nylon adhesive tape exports.
Ma called on China's local governments, trade agencies and trade enterprises to study international trade rules and strictly adhere to them. She said the Chinese government always opposed dumping, subsidies and protective measures conducted by China's trade partners.
After China's WTO entry, more domestic enterprises have realized the importance of using WTO rules to protect themselves. Since November 2001, MOFTEC had received about 12 complaints of dumping, subsidy and protective measures, more than the total of the previous four years.
(Information by Network Center of MOFCOM)
(News source: English Website of Ministry of Commerce)
(All information published in this website is authentic in Chinese. English is provided for reference only. )
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