China's First Year WTO Fees Set to be US$3 Million

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 22, 2002

China's First Year WTO Fees Set to be US$3 Million

The cost of China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) is US$3 million this year, according to a senior Chinese trade official.

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Fees based on proportion of foreign trade volume

The cost of China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) is US$3 million this year, according to a senior Chinese trade official.

"The membership fee is worked out on the basis of the proportion of China's foreign trade volume in the total of all members,'' said He Ning, director-general of the WTO Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC).

China's imports and exports made up about 3.5 per cent of the total of the world trade body's 144 members last year.

The newly appointed director-general released the information on Wednesday in an online question and answer session (Q&A).

Online Q&A launched to promote exchanges with surfers

The Q&A is part of MOFTEC's efforts to go digitized, said a spokesman for the department.

"We intend to regularly hold such online exchanges between surfers at our website www.moftec.gov.cn and our director, vic-ministers and minister,'' he told China Daily.

The director-general of the newly established WTO Affairs Department took part in China's quest to resume its position in the General Agreement of Trade and Tariffs and to join the WTO from 1987 to 1998.

He said a very important principle of China's socialist market economy mechanism and the WTO rules is fair competition and called for domestic companies to learn to protect their interests.

"Chinese companies should learn to sue foreign companies for unfair competition and turn to industrial associations, chambers of commerce and MOFTEC for help when being unfairly treated or discriminated against abroad,'' he said.

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