China launches investigation rule on trade barrier

China's Ministry of Commerce has released the rule on investigations into foreign trade barriers. The rule will help China improve its trade and investment environment as its products face increasing barriers globally.

A director with the Ministry of Commerce, Wang Shichun says the investigation rule is the updated and revised version of a 2002 temporary rule on trade barriers based on the past two years experience.

"The newly-released rule has covered a more comprehensive scope and has been more feasible in practice. The revised version is good for China to compete with other countries more fairly in the future."

The rule is fully in line with the WTO rules and has elaborate descriptions on the definition of trade barrier and counter measures.

Up to now, China has only had one investigation into a trade barrier case. Last April, the Ministry of Commerce started the first investigation into Japan's discrimination against China's laver exports after accepting request from laver producers in east China's Jiangsu Province.

Through bilateral negotiations, Japan finally lifted its restriction on China's laver exports this February.

Wang Tingzhu is the vice-chairman of the Jiangsu Provincial Laver Association.

"In the international market, Chinese enterprises should enjoy the fair treatment with their other WTO counterparts. Japan's laver import limit was a violation of the WTO rules. Now with the new investigation rule on trade barrier, Chinese industries can now better protect their interests using legal methods."

Experts say the launch of the rule indicates that China is pursuing a more aggressive approach in dealing with unfair trade practices. Meanwhile, they are also urging that more measures should be taken to raise China's capability of counter trade barriers.

Source: CRI news