China chalked up good scores in the first year since it entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) and it should try harder to act resolutely and appropriately in the post-WTO era, a Chinese senior trade official said.
Liu Xiangdong, an official with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), made the remarks Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the 2002 Annual Conference of the Chinese Society of International Trade held in Beijing.
The conference featured discussions on fulfilling China's commitments regarding its WTO membership, fully enjoying rights under the WTO framework and vigorously pushing foreign trade forward on a rapid and healthy track.
Since China entered the WTO, some countries had compelled it to open its market wider and at the same time imposed containment policies on it through more rigid technological barriers and more frequent anti-dumping cases, Liu Xiangdong said.
Over the past year, he noted, China resolutely tackled a series of anti-dumping lawsuits, including the steel case involving the United States, the animal-source foodstuffs case with the European Union and stricter inspections of vegetable imports from China by Japan and the Republic of Korea.
Meanwhile, China had expanded its exports and improved absorption of foreign investment through using opportunities provided by its WTO membership, Liu added.
In the first 10 months this year, China's foreign trade went up 19.7 percent year-on-year to 500.261 billion US dollars, including262.499 billion dollars in export value, up 20.6 percent, and 237.762 billion dollars in import value, up 18.7 percent, according to customs statistics. Trade surplus amounted to 24.737 billion US dollars, up 43.3 percent on an annual basis.
The past year saw most of China's concerns over its WTO entry not materializing, Liu said. For instance, though vegetables and animal-source foodstuffs were challenged, their exports grew more or less thanks to the timely re-orientation of markets. Imports of motor vehicles and auto parts were under quota control, and major domestic auto makers reported a substantial growth in production and all-time high profits.
However, Liu also pointed out, some traditional practices in China would conflict with some WTO rules. He called for full understanding of these rules and countermeasures against containment policies by some countries on China under the WTO framework.
(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2002)
