China News Service, July 11th, according to the website of the Ministry of Commerce, the person in charge of the Treaty and Law Department of the Ministry of Commerce on the 11th made a statement on the termination of the litigation proceedings in the WTO dispute case against the EU anti-dumping "substitute country" practice.
In response to recent foreign media and some domestic reports that China has sued the European Union’s anti-dumping “substitute country” practice in the World Trade Dispute case, the proceedings ended on June 15th, claiming that China lost the WTO dispute with the EU and tried to replace The case was interpreted as the WTO's failure to recognize China's "market economy status." The person in charge said that such reports are inconsistent with the facts and there are obvious legal errors.
The person in charge pointed out that after the termination of the litigation process in this case, the WTO did not have any effective ruling, and there was no saying of winning or losing. The termination of the litigation procedure in this case will neither affect China's position on disputed issues nor harm China's rights under the WTO rules. China’s position on Article 15 of the Protocol to China’s Accession to the WTO is clear. WTO members should fulfill their international obligations and stop using the “surrogate country” in anti-dumping investigations against China.
It said that the case has nothing to do with whether China is a "market economy country" or whether it has a "market economy status." The WTO has no definitions and criteria for "market economy countries" or "market economy status", nor is it authorized to determine the "market economy status" of any member. To confuse this case with the so-called "market economy country" and "market economy status" issues is a misunderstanding of the WTO rules.
The person in charge also said that at present, the global new crown epidemic continues to spread, unilateralism and trade protectionism are becoming more worrying, and the multilateral trading system has been seriously affected. The primary task of WTO members is to strengthen unity, jointly maintain the authority and effectiveness of the multilateral trading system, and work together to restore the normal operation of the dispute settlement mechanism as soon as possible. As a member of the WTO, China firmly supports the multilateral trading system and looks forward to strengthening cooperation with all parties to jointly safeguard the rules-based multilateral trading system.
Screenshot of the Ministry of Commerce website