China Increases Efforts to Fight Low-price Dumping

BEIJING, August 4 (Xinhua) -- The State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), China's price watchdog, has intensified efforts to fight low-price dumping activities by issuing a 20-article regulation.

The new regulation aims to crack down on low-price dumping, rampant in recent years in business activities, in an attempt to maintain a fair market for price competition, an SDPC official said here today.

The regulation is also necessary to enable relevant departments and localities to use legal means in exercising macroeconomic controls, safeguard the State's interests as well as the rights and interests of businesses and consumers, stimulate domestic demand, and lift the state-owned enterprises out of difficulties within three years, the official added.

The SDPC, along with other governmental departments, had already adopted several measures to prevent low-price dumping in the industrial sector, and these efforts have paid off.

Low-price dumping began spreading as market competition became stronger, the official said, stressing that the new regulation will cover any low-price dumping activity in all areas.

The Price Law already states that low-price dumping activities are illegal. This new regulation further differentiated between dumping and reasonable price cuts.

The country's overall price indexes have been declining for more than 20 months now, a result of sluggish demand. That's why the SDPC is taking these measures to straighten out price violations, the official concluded.