China will continue to impose anti-dumping duties on chloroform imported from the European Union (EU), the Republic of Korea and the United States, following a one-year investigation into the possibility of further dumping, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.

The tax rate will be 96 percent and the measures will last for four years, effective from Nov 30, according to the ministry.

China originally imposed a five-year anti-dumping tariff on the chemical purchased from the three regions between 2004 and 2009.

"Companies from these three regions may further expand their chloroform exports to the Chinese market at a dumping price, if we terminate the (anti-dumping) measures," the ministry said in a statement.

The low price of imported chloroform has restrained the normal price growth of similar products made in China, thereby suppressing domestic producers' profit margins and the market share of the industry, the ministry said.

China is now the biggest market for chloroform, which is widely used in the manufacture of medicines, dyes and pesticides.

The China Chlor-Alkali Industry Association estimates that demand for chloroform in the domestic market will increase 7 percent to 646,400 tons by 2012, from the current 601,900 tons.

With their high chloroform productivity levels, the EU, South Korea and the US are targeting China as an important export market.

Products purchased from these regions accounted for 87.6 percent of China's total imports volume of chloroform for the first six months of 2009.

In the first seven months this year, the bilateral trade volume between China and the EU reached $306 billion.

Meanwhile, the figure stands at $243 billion with the US.

Since November, the EU has also adopted anti-dumping measures on many products from China including coated paper, Melamine and some glucose-acids.

"Due to the strong competitiveness of China's products, some countries have begun to protect their domestic industries, especially after the financial crisis in which many developed countries suffered great losses," said Li Jian, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

The EU has been China's biggest trading partner for six consecutive years, during which time China has become the EU's second-biggest trading partner.

Moreover, the EU is China's largest source of imported technologies and fourth largest investor in the country.