China's decision to levy extra tariffs on Japanese exports of automobiles, mobile phones and air conditioners is a warning, although it's not expected to harm Japanese companies in any significant way, said experts.
The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC) issued a statement on Monday at midnight, declaring that China is to levy extra customs duties on import of automobiles, mobile phones and air conditioners from Japan.
The move was in response to a series of Japanese restrictive and discriminatory measures on some imports from China, said MOFTEC spokeswoman Gao Yan.
Gao said Japan had given no regard to China's strong opposition, declined to accept China's proposition of a solution to the problem and stuck to its original wrong-headed position.
She pointed out that the measures taken by the Japanese government have severely damaged domestic industries, companies and manufacturers and cast a shadow on the healthy development of bilateral trade.
Gao said China demands that Japan immediately cancel its
discriminatory measures on imports from China so as to solve the problem promptly.
The extra tariffs are not expected to have much influences on Japanese manufacturers although a lot of Japanese-brand automobiles, mobile phones and air conditioners are sold in China, said Xu Changwen, a senior researcher with the Asia-Africa studies office of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Co-operation.
"The majority of these brands, except for some cars, are manufactured in China,'' he told China Daily in an interview.
Japanese statistics show that China imported a total of 35,000 cars from the country last year, valued at about 64.8 billion Japanese yen (US$531.1 million). But there are almost no mobile phones and air conditioners actually imported from Japan.
Xu indicated that the Chinese move was more symbolic than than anything else.
Long Guoqiang, a senior researcher with the Development Research Centre, a think tank of the State Council, said that such a move was necessary to dissuade Japan from spreading its protective and discriminatory measures to other Chinese exports and also to dissuade other countries from adopting similar measures against China.
He added that extra tariffs on such end products shouldn't bring any negative countermeasures from Japan.
Japan placed emergency tariffs on mushroom, onions and tatami rushes, mainly from China, to be in effect from April to November.
MOFTEC officials said earlier that Japan did not compensate China for its losses due to the safeguard measure, as is required by World Trade Organization rules.
Although these officials expressed understanding that the Japanese decision was politically motivated and was not expected to last long and promised not to over-react to damage long-term bilateral trade ties, they vowed to respond in a way that would force Japanto recognize that such protective and discriminatory measures could backfire.
Chinese customs statistics show Japan is now China's largest trade partner, with almost no imbalance, importing US$41.7 billion worth of goods from China and exporting US$41.5 billion last year.
But the Japanese Government seems to have paid no attention to Chinese officials' words of warning and decided to temporarily stop the importation of chickens and ducks from China on June 7, because of the announcement of an alleged bird flu infection.
(chinadaily.com.cn 06/20/2001)
