China's Foreign Trade Faces More Challenges After WTO Entry

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, June 06, 2002

China's Foreign Trade Faces More Challenges After WTO Entry

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China's 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 Wednesday in Dalian.

Ma told the first national conference on fair trade which opened in Dalian Wednesday 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 lawsuits.

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 per cent to 428 cases, compared with 293 in 2000.

So far, 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 anti-dumping law cases, or had taken protective measures investigations targeting over 4,000 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 worth of China's exports. Ma believed such investigations would continue to rise during a long time period to come.

In March, the United States announced protective measures on imported steel, affecting 370 million U.S. dollars worth 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.

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