US should change wrong anti-dumping policy
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-07-17 08:45

A senior Chinese commerce official in Beijing Friday suggested the US change its discriminatory anti-dumping policy for the sake of smooth settlement of the increasing Sino-US trade disputes.

Addressing the China-US Commercial Mediation Congress held here Friday, Shang Ming, director general of the Treaty and Law Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said Sino-US trade disputes are increasing as the economic and trade exchanges boom between the two countries.

"it is natural to see exchanges followed by disputes, and the key point is solving disputes through proper means," he said.

He believed it would be helpful to smooth settlement of Sino-US trade disputes if the US government changes its discriminatory anti-dumping policy that regards China as a non-market-economy country.

The economies of the two countries are both supplementary and competitive, with supplementarity far exceeding competitiveness, Shang said.

Besides anti-dumping issues, the protection of intellectual property rights has also aroused many commercial disputes between the two countries, some of which have been solved already and some of which are under way, he said.

Commercial disputes are inevitable in the process of economic and trade exchanges, he said, naming some major means for dispute settlement such as intergovernmental negotiations and consultations, litigation and arbitration as well as commercial mediation.

Commercial mediation is a convenient and time-saving way for the parties concerned to solve their disputes outside courts, he said.

In the 20th century, some developed countries, especially the United States, began to pay more attention to commercial mediation as a new way for dispute settlement, he said.

The current China-US Commercial Mediation Congress was jointly held by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the US International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution.

Commercial mediation, as an alternative to litigation and arbitration, helps disputing parties to reach settlement agreements through direct dialogues and negotiations with the assistance of a third neutral party, according to the CCPIT.