The Ministry of Commerce releases its annual foreign access market report today. An official from the ministry's Bureau of Fair Trade for Import and Export said the report expresses concerns regarding foreign countries' trade barriers against Chinese companies and outlines plans to eliminate them through bilateral or multilateral negotiations.

The report shows that major trading partners use trade remedies, technical standards, quarantine and quality inspections, intellectual property rights, customs procedures, environmental protection and labor standards as trade barriers against Chinese products and investment.

The United States, the European Union and Japan are the focus of this year's report.

Many US laws contain provisions that discriminate against Chinese products, according to the report.

Unfair investigations also work as barriers. The United States launched nine anti-dumping investigations and two product-specific safeguard investigations involving Chinese imports last year.

The US restriction on imports of three Chinese textile products is a matter of great concern. China and the United States have held two rounds of consultations on this issue without any agreement so far.

The report said that US implementation procedures lack determination of basic concepts such as market disruption, which do not conform to the basic requirements set out in Paragraph 242 of the WTO agreement.

Last year, the European Union issued two directives governing disposal of waste electric and electronic products that will take effect in August 2005. China's Ministry of Commerce has been keeping in close contact with EU agencies regarding this matter, and is particularly concerned about cost sharing of historical waste disposal.

The ministry is also closely following a EU draft concerning registration and evaluation of chemicals, which will affect US$3 billion worth of exports.

Chemical exports to Japan are also under fire. That amendment to the Chemical Substance Control Law went into effect on April 1, 2004.

Technical standards, especially on farm produce and foods, have big impact on China's exports. These standards, intended to safeguard people's health, are often used for trade protection.

The 19 trading partners in the report accounted for 70 percent of China's total foreign trade last year. They are: Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Vietnam.

The foreign market access report was issued for the first time last year.

(China Daily May 20, 2004)