Trade Protectionism Is Regurgying This Year, The Situation Of Trade Friction Is Even More Serious.

In the past 2011, the number and amount of trade related relief cases in China continued to remain high, while the products involved in the expansion of high-tech and high value-added products were also increasingly fierce in terms of institutional and institutional frictions. In the context of the rising uncertainty of world economic recovery and the rise of Global trade protectionism, what kind of trade frictions will China face this year? How should governments and enterprises prepare for them?

The number of cases of "two counter two guarantees" remains high, and trade barriers emerge in endlessly.

Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce showed that as of December 27, 2011, foreign countries launched a counter campaign against China last year. dumping 67 cases involving countervailing measures, safeguard measures and special safeguard investigations, involving 5 billion 900 million US dollars, were mainly involved in steel, electromechanical and other fields. Many countries also restrict imports from China by setting up technical barriers to trade such as safety standards, health standards, packaging labels, information technology standards, environmental labeling, labor safety standards and welfare standards.

It is noteworthy that with China industry And upgrading of export commodities, involving China's trade frictions. product From traditional labor intensive products to high-tech products.

A typical case is that in November 8th last year, the US Department of Commerce launched an anti-dumping and countervailing investigation on China's US solar panels (plates), the first trade remedy investigation of China's clean energy products abroad. In the past year, the United States has also launched 16 investigations of 337 intellectual property infringements against Chinese enterprises.

"Some of China's high-end manufacturing and strategic emerging industries have gradually become the focus of new trade frictions." The director of the Fair Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce said.

In addition to specific industries, some countries have been paying more and more attention to China's macroeconomic management policies in recent years. She has been making frequent difficulties in China's economic and trade policies such as market access, government procurement, intellectual property rights and export credit, especially in the field of countervailing investigations launched by China, and state-owned enterprises and state-owned commercial banks have been identified as "public institutions", accusing the Chinese government of providing huge subsidies.

In addition, some developed members of WTO are applying trade remedy measures to Chinese products while applying multiple bilateral rules to put pressure on China. In 2011, there were more litigation cases involving WTO in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, and 3 anti-dumping and countervailing measures initiated by China were referred to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism in the US and Europe.

International trade protectionism resurgence will be more difficult to tackle frictions.

The head of the Fair Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce said that the deep impact of the international financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis resonate, and the uncertainty and instability of the world economic recovery have increased, and the global protectionism has risen noticeably.

The responsible person said that the protectionist sentiments of developed countries are far above the level of early 2009. Some developing countries, with the trend of protectionism, also urged their governments to step up intervention, protect their own enterprises or industries, and restrict the entry of foreign capital and commodities. Next year, various forms of trade restrictions will be further increased.

"Next year, the world economy may be in a state of lack of demand, lack of confidence and lack of means, which may lead to politicization of economic problems." Turning to the risk of trade friction, Zhang Yansheng, a fellow of the national development and Reform Commission's Foreign Economic Research Institute, said.

Li Yu, a lawyer who has repeatedly represented overseas Chinese trade remedy cases and WTO litigation, feels that Cotts's law enforcement practice in the US Department of Commerce and other administrative organs is very obvious in the recent practice of Li Yu. For example, in the past anti-dumping investigations in China, India was usually replaced by one country, and now it is chosen in six countries such as Ukraine, South Africa and Thailand. This makes the US Department of commerce more discretion, and the difficulty of Chinese enterprises' defense is greatly improved.

The director of the Fair Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce said that the Ministry of Commerce will further strengthen the organic combination of political response, legal defense, industry cooperation and public relations lobbying, and strengthen the guidance and service to domestic enterprises through the "four body linkage" working mechanism.

She said that China has established trade relief cooperation mechanism with 16 countries and regions, and has effectively resolved some trade frictions through dialogue and consultation, and will further strengthen this aspect in the future.

Breakthrough in the use of judicial proceedings to challenge trade barriers

After more than three years of trial, China's Hebei Starbright Tyre Co (Hebei Xing MAO) ushered in a landmark victory in its unremitting insistence: US time December 19, 2011, the Federal Circuit appeals court made a verdict on the non road tyres judicial lawsuit, ruled that the US Department of commerce could not conduct countervailing investigations in the case of China as a non market economy country.

Prior to that, China had wronged the US investigation agencies and resorted to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. In March 11, 2011, the WTO Appellate Body ruled that the US double counter measure (DS379 case) violated the WTO rules.

The head of the Fair Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce believes that although the legal proceedings of the case have not yet been completed, the WTO ruling and the decision of the United States Court indicate that the 30 countervailing investigations carried out by the United States over the years have violated WTO rules and lack the basis of the domestic law of the United States, which is a typical practice of abusing trade remedy measures.

"The Chinese government hopes that the US Department of Commerce will abide by the laws and rules, respect the US judiciary, and correct its erroneous practices of countervailing investigations on Chinese products as soon as possible." The person in charge said.

Li Yu, who is involved in the judicial proceedings of non road tyres, believes that the revelation of this case to Chinese enterprises is that in the face of unfair treatment in international competition, enterprises should be brave enough to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, while in daily operation, they should pay attention to lawful compliance management and enhance the strength of enterprises to participate in modern international competition.