At the "Sixth China Economists' Forum" held in Beijing November 30, Long Yongtu, secretary-general of the Bo'ao Forum for Asia, stated that some people assert China has come to the peak of suffering from anti-dumping measures since its entry into World Trade Organization (WTO), alleging that China's current trade environment is very poor, which are both inconsistent with the facts. China's foreign trade environment at present and in 2005 is good as a whole and is getting better and better.

Long said that China's total export volume in 2003 reached US$438 billion, and the actual amount of products suffering from anti-dumping was US$ 2.3 billion, less than 0.5 percent of China's total export volume. In the first nine months of this year, China's exports amounted to US$416.2 billion, but the value of products suffering from anti-dumping dropped to US$1.1 billion, less that 0.3 percent of China's total export volume.

Long noted that it is at variance with the facts to regard the 0.5 percent and 0.3 percent as the mainstream of China's foreign trade and to describe China as the severely afflicted area suffering from international trade protection. It is legal to use anti-dumping measures in the international arena, so China is also using anti-dumping to protect its domestic products. What we oppose is the abuse of anti-dumping measures, not anti-dumping per se. From this perspective, China's foreign trade environment at present and in 2005 is good as a whole and getting better and better.

Long also said that American's previous annual examination of the issue regarding China's most-favored-nation treatment severely soured the stability of political and trading relations between China and the United States. But with China's entry into the WTO, this problem has been resolved, and now the US has become China's largest export market. Over the past few years, China has established active strategic partnerships with the EU, and China's ties with ASEAN, Japan and the Republic of Korea are improving with each passing day, all these facts show that China's entire foreign trade environment is sound.

Long maintain that there are two most important factors for the development of China's foreign trade: First, the daily developing trend of economic globalization; second, China's high-speed economic development and its broader and deeper participation in economic globalization. As long as these two factors remain unchanged, China's foreign trade will forge ahead continuously and steadily. The international trade environment China currently faces must not be miscalculated, but the problem of self-discipline among certain domestic industries must be settled, because the problem of vying to cut down prices and engaging in vicious competition does exist in some trades.

By People's Daily Online