China suffered 101 trade remedy investigations launched by 19 countries and regions by November 3 this year, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

These investigations, targeting Chinese products, involved more than US$11.68 billion, said Wang Chao, the MOC assistant minister, at a seminar recently held in Beijing.

"The world financial crisis has led to a sharp rise of trade protectionist atmosphere worldwide. China now is in the center area of world trade friction," he said.

According to Wang, trade protectionism against Chinese products is expanding from goods trade to other fields, such as currency exchange rate, service trade, intellectual property rights, and investment.

He suggested that China improve its trade remedy system, enhance ability to deal with trade friction to safeguard industry safety in coping with challenges in the "post-crisis" period.

Under the World Trade Organization rules, members may appeal to trade remedy measures, including levying anti-dumping, anti-subsidies taxes, when encountering unfair trade practices. But this has been frequently used as a tool to carry out trade protectionism by some countries amid world economic downturn.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2009)