Regarding China's efforts on securing fair implementation of the bidding system in government procurement projects as trade protectionism is a misunderstanding. Actually products made by foreign-funded enterprises in China are treated as China made products. China will continue to keep its commitments on its opening-up policy and will never take any discriminative measures against foreign companies or products.
Those remarks were made by Yao Jian, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, and Li Pumin, spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission, in their joint statement on June 26.
The statement reiterated China's commitments on its opening-up policy on the principle of reciprocity and win-win situation and its opposition against trade protectionism in the context of the global financial crisis.
China issued a circular in June 1 requiring stronger supervision on tendering for government-funded projects to avoid discrimination against domestic products. That notice was reported as a so-called "buy China" protectionism policy by some international media.
The purpose of the notice is to secure fair competition on the market by curbing any practices of restricting competition, said the joint statement by the two spokespersons. The notice was issued in the context of some discriminative actions against Chinese products in some government-funded projects.
The notice is in line with China's government procurement law. It is not a new policy related to China's stimulus package, nor a practice of trade protectionism against foreign enterprises or products.
The definition of "domestic products" in the notice also includes those made by foreign enterprises in China.
The statement said that domestic and foreign products had been equally treated in the stimulus package which had been implemented so far. In addition, the Chinese government has organized several business delegations to other countries, Germany, Britain, the US, to name just a few, to promote trade and investment cooperation with those countries.
They also noted that China had filed its application of joining the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and hoped major WTO members to show flexibility and pragmatism to make China's early accession possible.
China's government procurement law and rules about government procurement issued by government departments are not in breach of any international obligations, said the statement.
By People's Daily Online
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