Shi Guangsheng, minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation (MOFTEC) lashed out this weekend against "untrue" and "malicious" reports on China's implementation of its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"China has been working very hard to fulfil its commitments to the WTO since its accession to the organization last December. And China, as it has solemnly declared many times, will be a good member and is trying hard to carry out every word of its promises," said Shi on Saturday during the ministry's mid-year national conference on exports.

Shi admitted that a lack of time has caused China to be one or two months late in increasing quotas for some commodities, but said that some reports in the Western media accusing China of willful dawdling "were not true and maliciously distorted."

"China became a member at year's end and time quickly ran out before it was ready to raise its quota limits on some commodities in line with its promises.

"We promised this wouldn't happen again and the Western media shouldn't exaggerate and manipulate this incident," he said.

Shi said that since becoming a WTO member, China has been working diligently to revise laws and rules, published by either the central or local governments, to open markets, especially in the service sector. China has also been consulting with the WTO on its trade policies to improve transparency, and has been actively participating in the WTO's new round of trade liberalization talks.

China has basically finished the clean-up of its laws and rules in line with WTO requirements, abolishing 830 items, amending 325 and publishing some new ones, Shi said.

These include three important national laws on wholly foreign-owned enterprises, Sino-foreign equity joint ventures and Sino-foreign cooperatives. Compared with their predecessors, the revised laws create a more relaxed environment for the operation of foreign-funded enterprises.

This year priority is being given to provincial regulations. For example, Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, announced yesterday the repeal of an eight-year-old local regulation on foreign-funded enterprises.

And China's average tariff level dropped to 12 per cent. Tariffs have been reduced on 5,332 items since the beginning of this year, Shi said.

A number of foreign insurance and financial companies have entered the Chinese market pursuant to the government opening the market according to its timetable.

The China-WTO Notification Enquiry Centre started operating on January 14 of this year and so far has received 350 inquiries and sent more than 200 notices about China's trade policy to the WTO.

Shi said WTO entry has had a positive impact overall on the Chinese economy as China starts to take an active role in the new round of WTO talks on farm trade, export subsidies, intellectual property protection, government purchasing and competition policies.

China's use of the world trade block's dispute settlement mechanism and its channels to conduct bilateral negotiations with other countries trying to get into the WTO, such as Viet Nam and Russia, have also had a positive effect.

(China Daily July 22, 2002)