Are China's FTAs really making a difference?

自贸协定稳外需、促出口作用初显

文章来源:商务部新闻办公室　 作者:

2009-08-14 15:04:31

　　今年以来，受金融危机冲击，我国外贸发展面临严峻挑战，但我国与自贸伙伴国双边贸易逆势上扬或降速减缓，我国主要出口产品在自贸伙伴国市场份额有所上升，自贸协定在稳定外需、促进出口和保持份额方面发挥了积极作用。 

　　截至目前，共有14个国家与我国签署自贸协定，其中13个已开始实施协定。金融危机中，与其对全球贸易相比，我自贸伙伴国在自贸协定支撑下对华贸易下滑有限甚至逆势上扬；我对自贸伙伴国出口表现明显好于我同期对全球出口。根据目前掌握的部分自贸伙伴国的统计数据，1至4月，巴基斯坦对外贸易总体同比下降4%，但对华贸易上升28%。新西兰对外贸易总体下降3%，但对华贸易上升30%。马来西亚对外贸易总体下降24%，对华贸易仅下降13%。印尼对外贸易总体下降34%，对华贸易仅下降22%。智利对外贸易总体下降38%，但对华贸易仅下降24%。我对自贸伙伴国出口出现上升或降幅较小。巴基斯坦从全球进口同比下降12%，但从华进口上升32%。新西兰从全球进口总额下降8%，但从华进口增长上升11%。智利从全球进口总额下降34%，从华进口下降19%。

　　根据我国海关统计，受金融危机冲击，1至4月，我国主要出口产品对全球出口总额全部出现负增长。但是，我部分主要产品依靠自贸协定，在各自贸伙伴国需求萎缩、融资困难的情况下，逆势实现了出口增长。在10种主要出口商品中，有7种产品对自贸伙伴出口情况好于对全球出口。服装、鞋类、家具、塑料制品、箱包等5种产品实现增长，其中家具、箱包、鞋类增幅高达214%、72%和52%。根据我已实施的自贸协定，2009年恰是上述几种产品关税减让“大年”，降税比例从10%到40%不等，由此可见自贸协定优惠政策对我出口的促进作用。 

　　在有的自贸伙伴国，我主要产品的出口金额和占当地市场的份额双双上升。例如，1至4月，在巴基斯坦主要从华进口产品中，机电产品进口金额同比上升33%，占其从全球进口比重（以下简称“进口比重”）从15%上升至25%；纺织品和服装进口金额上升269%，进口比重从2%上升至21%；钢材及其制品进口金额上升12%，进口比重从5%上升至11%；机车、汽车、船舶及零部件进口金额上升177%，进口比重从3%上升至16%。 

　　在其他自贸伙伴国，虽然我主要产品出口金额有所下降，但是占当地市场的份额却有上升。例如，新加坡从我国进口集成电路金额同比下降25%，但是进口比重由0.35%上升至6.6%; 办公设备零件金额下降24%，但进口比重由6%上升至29%。马来西亚从我国进口金属制品金额下降23%，但进口比重由9%上升至11%；光学科技设备金额下降16%，但进口比重由10%上升至14%。 

　　总体而言，目前，除中国-东盟自贸区实施时间较长外，其他自贸区还处于实施的前半期，降税的高峰尚未到来。可以预见，随着时间的推移，将有更多的自贸协定进入实施阶段或进入实施的后半期，自贸协定在促进出口、稳定外需和保持份额方面的积极作用可望进一步凸现。

China is putting pressure on the tyres

It seems that China is really getting serious on the tyres special safeguard case, with Vice-Minister Zhong Shan from MOFCOM leading a special delegation to the US to hold consultations with several key US agencies before the USTR makes its recommendations to the President. Are tyres really that important for China? Not in terms of trade volume, but China is afraid of the precedent this case would set and the chain reaction that the US could start around the world with this case as the result of the trade-diversion clause in the special safeguard clause. 

商务部副部长钟山率团与美国白宫安全委员会、贸易谈判代表办公室和商务部就轮胎特保案进行交涉和磋商

2009-08-19 15:15  文章来源：商务部新闻办公室

文章类型：原创  内容分类：新闻

8月18日，商务部副部长钟山率中国政府代表团继续与美国白宫安全委员会、贸易谈判代表办公室和商务部就轮胎特保案进行交涉与磋商，表达中方坚决反对特保措施的立场。中国政府、业界和民众高度关注此案，因为特保措施具有歧视性，对中方不公平；特保条款中关于贸易转移的规定，会产生传导效应，如美方采取措施，会引发其他国家也采取措施，对中方利益造成危害；在当前国际社会共同应对金融危机的形势下，美方采取特保措施会向世界发出贸易保护主义的错误信号，也会严重影响中美经贸关系的稳定发展。  　  　　钟山表示，希望美方从长远和战略高度以及中美双边关系大局出发，切实落实两国领导人在20国集团峰会、首轮中美战略与经济对话达成的共识，对贸易问题加强沟通和磋商，并积极推动双方业界进行对话与合作，化解贸易摩擦。  　　美方表示，通过会谈磋商充分了解了中方对此案的关注和立场，将认真考虑中方立场和意见，目前该案仍在调查程序中，愿继续与中方保持沟通。 商务部副部长钟山率团赴美就轮胎特保案与美有关部门进行交涉 2009-08-17 12:46  文章来源：商务部新闻办公室 文章类型：原创  内容分类：新闻 　　2009年4月20日，应美国钢铁工人联合会申请，美国国际贸易委员会对我乘用车和轻型卡车轮胎发起特保调查，并于6月29日提出救济措施的初步建议，拟对我轮胎产品连续3年分别加征55%、45%和35%的关税。  　　针对该案，中国商务部会同有关行业协会积极开展应对工作。中国商务部于7月17日与美国贸易代表办公室就救济措施进行磋商。商务部钟山副部长将于8月17至18日在美国与美国白宫安全委员会、财政部、贸易代表办公室、商务部和国务院等部门举行会谈，就轮胎特保案与美方进行交涉和磋商，表达中国政府坚决反对特保措施的立场和关切。  　　根据美调查程序，美国贸易代表办公室将于9月2日前向美总统提出建议，美总统将于9月17日前做出是否采取措施的最终决定。  　　本案是美新政府对我发起的首例特保调查，也是案值最大的一起。根据中方统计，2008年我对美轮胎出口金额约22亿美元。此前美布什政府曾对我发起6起特保调查，最终均未采取特保措施。

 

My Interview on the Films and Books case in the Christian Science Monitor

Long shackled in China's market, Hollywood now sees opening

The World Trade Organization's ruling that Beijing violated trade law with restrictions on distribution of foreign films, books, and music could mean more revenue for US companies.

By Simon Montlake | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the August 14, 2009 edition

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BEIJING - The US entertainment industry has long complained that sales restrictions and unchecked piracy are locking them out of China's vast marketplace. Movie studios are aggrieved that so few foreign films are screened. Booksellers dislike mandatory tie-ups with state-owned distributors.

In a judgment made public Wednesday the World Trade Organization (WTO) partly concurred. The WTO found that China's controls on the distribution of foreign books, films, and music violate trade rules. China said it may appeal the ruling, the latest in a series of disputes with the US, its largest trading partner.

Hollywood immediately hailed the ruling as a victory.

"The Chinese system for distributing US films to Chinese audiences is among the most restrictive and burdensome in the world.... This ruling represents a positive step in promoting the growth of legitimate US movies," said Dan Glickman, the chair of the Motion Picture Association of America, in a statement.

But Hollywood didn't get everything it wanted. While the WTO told China to open up distribution of home entertainment like DVDs, CDs, and books to foreign competition, which should put more money in US pockets, the WTO didn't disallow China's requirement that foreign studios work with one of two state-owned distributors, who can dictate terms for revenue sharing, or its quota on foreign films. Only 20 are allowed in a year, effectively protecting domestic studios and encouraging coproductions in China.

Music downloads did get a boost, though. The trade body said that foreign companies should be allowed to sell their content directly to Chinese consumers. Internet downloads of music, films, and television shows are hugely popular in China, but are almost invariably free.

PIRACY DAMPENS EFFECTS OF RULING

The ruling won't necessarily fling open the doors to US entertainment companies, says Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University and a former WTO staffer. "Even if US firms can get involved in distribution services in China, will they be able to sufficiently exploit these opportunities?" he asks.

One reason why they won't, says Mr. Gao, is rampant piracy of films, music, software, and other copyright-protected products in China. Hollywood studios argue that they can't compete with counterfeit DVDs of the latest theatrical releases for $1 apiece. Music companies must also struggle to persuade Chinese consumers to buy their CDs – not pirated copies or free downloads.

This latest ruling doesn't address piracy. The US filed a separate WTO complaint over lax enforcement of Chinese laws on piracy, which the WTO partially upheld in a ruling issued earlier this year. The US has pushed for more criminal convictions of wholesalers in China and a stop to the resale of seized goods.

Yao Jian, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, said Thursday that China was studying the verdict and would consider an appeal.

"The channels for foreign publications, films and audio-visual products to enter the Chinese market are extremely open," he said, according to the Associated Press.

US WANTS CENSORSHIP SEPARATE FROM SALES

For China, regulating the distribution of these products is about more than commerce. It also reflects the strict controls put on all news and entertainment for political reasons. China has argued that it needs to screen out offensive content and that it has the right to do so under international trade rules.

The US didn't challenge China's censorship system at the WTO. Instead, it successfully argued that such controls should be separated from sales networks, so that foreign companies can compete with government-run entities.

What galvanizes US studios isn't censorship but the tussle over who profits from blockbusters like "Transformers." In other countries, companies like Warner Brothers own their own theaters and get a huge slice of the box office profits. China has nearly 4,000 movie screens that attract middle-class consumers who can afford $10 a ticket.

But foreign companies can only own minority stakes in movie theaters in China, to the frustration of Hollywood executives. Gross box office receipts totalled $640 million in 2008, with foreign films raking in over one third. That total is up 30 percent on 2007, underscoring the industry's rapid growth, despite the competition from pirates.

Legal experts say the US will be disappointed by the pushback on some points, including the distribution duopoly for movies shown in theaters, and music censorship, neither of which the WTO said violated China's trade obligations.

What the film and publications ruling is not about

In this day and age, misinformation filled the pages of newspapers everyday. It's no surprise that the latest WTO ruling against China also fall victim to that. Before I have time to tell fellow blog readers what the case is about, I thought I should set the record straight by making clear what the case is not about.

Below is a misreported piece from the officially-run China Daily. It claimed that the case would adversely affect the two importers of foreign movies, i.e., China Film Group and Huaxia. This is WRONG as the WTO report did not rule against China on the "duopoly". Instead, according to the panel, the US could not even establish that the Chinese practice is a measure covered by WTO law.

Mixed reaction to WTO ruling
By Ding Qingfen and Liu Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-14 07:00
Comments(5) PrintMail

* The ruling, if approved by WTO, would adversely affect the two importers of foreign films. But other companies hailed the ruling.

* It's understandable China takes measures to protect the film industry from being invaded by foreign products, said an associate professor from Beijing Film Academy.

China may appeal a ruling by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that would break up a monopoly of two State-owned firms as the sole foreign audiovisuals importers.

A WTO dispute settlement panel, in a report released yesterday, ruled that China's practices were inconsistent with international trade rules, and that China needs to revise them.

The US filed the case two years ago. The case involves publications, audio and video products, and music download services imported by China.

The ruling, if approved by WTO, would adversely affect the two importers of foreign films. But other companies hailed the ruling.

"It is good news for private companies. We would like to join in. The game was unfair, but I believe complete competition is coming," said Wang Zhonglei, president of Huayi Brothers, China's leading privately owned media company.

The Chinese government has appointed China Film Group and Huaxia Film Distribution to import and distribute audiovisuals from abroad.

This, as the US claimed, has not only run against the fundamental WTO rules requiring equal treatment between local and foreign businesses, but also breached the commitment China made when it joined the WTO to open up sales and distribution.

"China has been performing its duty on publications market access, and we have been providing unblocked access to overseas imports of audiovisual products," the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday on its website.

"We regret the dispute panel did not turn down the US."

China has imported approximately 500,000 titles of publications of all kinds every year since joining the WTO in 2001, as promised in its entry agreement.

Under the WTO framework, the US and China must decide within two months whether to appeal any part of the ruling.

"We will carefully evaluate the report," the ministry said.

The ministry's Department of Treaty and Law, which is responsible for the issue, refused to comment.

Lin Xiaoxia, associate professor from Beijing Film Academy, defended China's policies.

"Film in China can be hardly a pure commercial product. Its educational and social functions are still important. It's understandable China takes measures to protect the film industry from being invaded by foreign products, especially when ours is still too weak to compete," Lin said.

But Tao Jingzhou, a partner of US Jones Day, a leading international law firm, said China has little chance of winning an appeal.

The American Chamber of Commerce China also hailed the ruling.

China - Publications

The long-awaited panel report in the China - Publications and
Audiovisual Products case is out. I discussed the legal issues in that
case in my 2007 article in the Asian Journal of WTO & International
Health Law and Policy Interested readers can download the whole paper
from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1019394. I will try to post more on this case in the coming days.

The Tyres Special Safeguard Case Hearing

轮胎特保听证 中国居上风

（香港）   (2009-08-09)

（联合早报网讯）香港大公网报道，中国输美轮胎特保案听证会七日在位于华盛顿的美国贸易代表办公室举行，中美各界代表各抒己见。除来自美国钢铁工人联合会的少数人士作证支持对中国轮胎实施制裁外，大多数作证的美国业界代表认为对中国轮胎的制裁建议纯属得不偿失。

　　据新华社华盛顿七日消息：按照美国国际贸易委员会此前的建议，今后三年，美方应对中国输美轮胎逐年分别加征百分之五十五、百分之四十五和百分之三十五的惩罚性关税。

　　美钢铁工会漫天要价

　　在听证会上，美国钢铁工人联合会国际业务主席利奥．杰勒德声称，第一年百分之五十五的高关税仍不能削弱中国轮胎的竞争力，美国政府当年的惩罚性关税应该达到百分之七十五至百分之八十。

　　杰勒德说，这是因为大量进口中国轮胎损害了美国轮胎产业的利益。按照美国钢铁工人联合会的统计，在二○○四年到二○○八年期间，共有五家美国轮胎厂关门倒闭，五千一百名美国工人失业，今年又有三千名美国工人下岗。他认为，美国轮胎工业正处于转捩点，只有采取救济措施，“才能决定相关工业的未来。”

　　代表美国轮胎自由贸易联合会作证的轮胎经销商德尔．纳特公司总裁詹姆斯．梅菲尔德说，美国钢铁工人联合会强调的是就业问题，但假如政府接受制裁建议，“在行销领域将有数千美国人因此失业，而制造业领域也不会因此产生新的就业岗位。”

　　梅菲尔德解释说，这是因为，美国的轮胎制造商已经不再生产低端轮胎产品，他们不会因为中国轮胎进口受阻而开启新的生产线，经销商只能转向韩国、巴西、墨西哥等第三国，这在短期内会造成市场混乱。

　　美国罗格斯大学经济学教授托马斯．普吕萨在听证会上指出，根据他的研究，美国如果借助轮胎特保措施保住一个就业岗位，结果将会损失二十五个就业岗位，总计美国将会因此损失二万五千个就业岗位，这对美国就业市场是雪上加霜。

　　代表通用、福特、佳士拿三大汽车商利益的美国汽车贸易政策委员会副总裁查尔斯．奥瑟斯说，对中国轮胎进行制裁将抬高美国汽车成本，损害美国汽车业的竞争力，也不会给美国轮胎产业带来好处。

　　中国业界代表据理力争

　　针对美国钢铁工人联合会将“原罪”推给中国轮胎的做法，特意从北京赶来作证的中国橡胶工业协会副秘书长徐文英反驳说，美国轮胎工厂关闭的原因并不是中国输美轮胎增加，而是因为美国轮胎制造商采取产品升级战略，放弃了利润较少的低端轮胎市场，而中国轮胎大多是低端产品，并不构成对美国轮胎的威胁。

　　她还说，如果美国真对中国轮胎实行百分之五十五的高关税，实质就是将中国轮胎产品拒之门外，对中国相关产业造成打击，也不利于美国消费者的利益。

　　代理中国轮胎工业的美国律师戴维．斯普纳说，中国输美轮胎完全是合法、正当的交易，这当中既不存在低价倾销，也不存在非法补贴，而工会拟议的特保制裁实质上是一种保护主义行为，“工会只是在从特保案中渔利”。

　　轮胎制造商选择沉默

　　值得注意的是，这次特保案的起诉方不是轮胎制造商，而是所谓代表工人利益的美国钢铁工人联合会。对这起特保案，作为重要关联方的美国制造商选择了沉默。

　　据相关人士透露，实际上，在中国输美轮胎中，有相当一部分是美国制造商在华工厂生产或在华贴牌生产，特保案不符合美国制造商的利益；但由于当前轮胎工人正在进行劳资谈判，美国制造商面临强大压力，因此选择三缄其口。

　　中通社引述相关评论人士认为，中方代表团参加听证会就说明这一事件还有“翻盘”的可能。另外，美方内部反对、争议的声音也很强大，特保案通过还是不通过，概率各占一半。

　　谈判专家指出，即使特保案调查得以成立，还要过美国总统奥巴马审批这一关。奥巴马或许会为回报工会在竞选期间的支持而同意，也或许会考虑到中美经贸大局出发加以否决。

　　据悉，按照美方目前的调查程序，美国贸易代表办公室在谘询财政部、劳工部、商务部等部门意见后，将于九月二日向美国总统奥巴马提出相关建议，奥巴马预计将在九月十七日前就此案作出最终决定。

MOFCOM getting tough on auto-related cases

商务部进出口公平贸易局负责人 就欧盟拟对中国铝合金轮毂发起反倾销调查表示严重关切 2009-08-07 19:01  文章来源：商务部新闻办公室 文章类型：原创  内容分类：新闻 　　8月7日，商务部进出口公平贸易局负责人就欧盟拟对中国铝合金轮毂发起反倾销调查发表谈话。  　　该负责人表示，欧洲轮毂制造商协会（EUWA）代表欧盟6家铝合金轮毂生产商于6月底向欧委会递交了对中国铝合金轮毂产品发起反倾销调查的申诉书，日前，欧委会照会中方并称拟于近日发起调查。中方对此表示严重关切，希望欧方慎重行事。  　　该负责人强调，中方注意到，欧洲轮毂制造商协会递交的申诉书在申请人资格、替代国选择等方面存在问题，不符合WTO反倾销协议的有关规定，欧委会应该进行严格的审查。中国企业以高于国内市场的价格出口铝合金轮毂，并没有倾销。同时，据中国海关统计，2008年7月至2009年5月，中国对欧出口的铝合金轮毂占欧盟市场份额不足8%，不会对欧产业造成损害，对华发起反倾销调查没有必要。  　　该负责人进一步表示，中国铝合金轮毂产品被奔驶、宝马、大众、奥迪等大型跨国公司作为汽车零配件广泛使用，并深受欢迎。中国的铝合金轮毂产品满足了欧盟市场的需求，欧盟对华铝合金轮毂反倾销将会对中欧汽车零配件贸易造成严重不利影响，而且不利于欧盟汽车跨国公司的全球产业分工、布局和供应链管理，容易造成双输的局面。

商务部公平贸易局负责人就美国业界反对对中国轮胎产品采取特保限制措施发表谈话

2009-08-03 16:08  文章来源：商务部新闻办公室

文章类型：原创  内容分类：新闻

近期，美国轮胎产业协会、美国轮胎自由贸易联盟、美国汽车贸易政策理事会和美国零售业领导者协会等业界组织纷纷就美国对华轮胎特保调查案表态，反对对中国轮胎产品采取特保限制措施。中国商务部公平贸易局负责人对此发表谈话，希望美国政府认真研究考虑来自美国国内业界的呼声，客观公正地做出不采取措施的决定。  　　该负责人表示，中方注意到，7月10日美国轮胎产业协会公开致函奥巴马总统，并抄送美国贸易代表柯克，强烈要求奥巴马总统否决任何对中国轮胎采取限制措施的建议。该协会在信中表示，美国国际贸易委员会所建议的救济措施对于保护美国制造业工人就业机会毫无意义，反而会导致美国轮胎消费者在目前经济危机背景下面临更高的价格与更少的选择，从而损害美国消费者和轮胎贸易商的利益。如果美国政府采取限制措施，不但达不到救济美产业的目的，反而会引起市场扰乱。美国轮胎产业协会由遍布全美50个州的6000多家小企业组成，代表美国轮胎生产、维修、零售、批发、售后服务、翻新、回收企业以及为轮胎产业提供设备、原材料或服务的企业与个人的利益。  　　7月21日，由美国6家轮胎进口商组成的美国轮胎自由贸易联盟致函美国贸易代表柯克，明确反对美对中国轮胎产品采取特保限制措施，并要求与柯克举行会谈。该联盟指出，若美总统接受美国国际贸易委员会提出的救济措施建议，将会严重损害美轮胎分销和零售从业者的利益。该联盟估算，本案一旦采取措施将导致轮胎分销和零售领域近25000人失业，措施每“保护”一个就业岗位，就将额外损失25个岗位。此外，救济措施将导致消费者每年多支出6-7亿美元，迫使消费者在经济困难时期不得不推迟更换轮胎，而这不仅威胁消费者人身安全，还将进一步阻碍轮胎产业的发展。  　　7月27日，代表克莱斯勒、福特和通用三大美国汽车巨头利益的美国汽车贸易政策理事会致函美国贸易代表柯克，反对对中国输美原配轮胎（汽车原装配套轮胎）采取特保限制措施。该理事会指出，由于汽车原配胎为定制产品，必须根据不同车型满足特定的技术标准，若美国限制进口中国产原配轮胎，美汽车制造商将耗费大量资源重新寻找轮胎替代来源，这将涉及大量机械装备的投资，每种车型约需花费100万美元，而且需要18至30个月才能完成。  　　7月27日，代表美国规模最大的零售商、产品制造商和服务供应商利益的美国零售业领导者协会也致函美国贸易代表柯克，要求美国贸易代表办公室不要向奥巴马总统提出限制进口中国轮胎产品的救济措施建议。该协会表示，如果在经济困难时期限制轮胎进口，大量消费者为节省支出将放弃或推迟更换汽车轮胎，这将严重威胁消费者的人身安全。自中国进口的轮胎主要集中在美国的低端市场，一旦限制中国轮胎产品进口，将迫使消费者选择中高端轮胎产品，这对消费者利益和交通安全的危害都是巨大的。  　　该负责人强调，美国国际贸易委员会6月29日向美国贸易代表办公室提出的救济措施建议缺乏合理性和客观依据，中方坚决反对美国采取限制进口中国轮胎产品的歧视性特保措施，中国政府在与美国相关部门的交涉和磋商中已多次表达上述立场。对中国轮胎产品采取特保限制措施，不仅损害中国轮胎产业的利益，阻碍中美双边贸易的正常开展，而且也将损害美国的整体经济利益。

You screw us, we screw you.

China filed a complaint against the EU in the WTO on Friday. This is the first complaint ever filed by China against any WTO Member other than the US. I first heard of this case when I met with my friends at Crowell & Moring in Brussels last November. The case would be very interesting to watch. Guess some people at the EU Trade Commission will have to cancel their summer holiday.

China in EU trade spat over screw imports

By Daniel Igra in Brussels and Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

Published: July 31 2009 13:57 | Last updated: July 31 2009 18:23

China has sparked a row with the European Union after complaining to the world's trade watchdog that EU anti-dumping duties on Chinese screws and bolts are breaking global commerce rules.

The world's second-largest exporter lodged its first complaint against the EU with the World Trade Organisation on Friday, protesting that EU tariffs of up to 85 per cent were "neither impartial nor transparent" and were damaging business for hundreds of Chinese companies.

The move signals Beijing's willingness to defend its trade-related interests more aggressively through multilateral institutions, as well as its implicit acceptance of the authority of those western-dominated institutions. 

The European Commission said the duties, imposed in January on goods worth some €575m ($812m) a year, complied with WTO rules and served to protect European businesses from unfairly priced Chinese goods.

Under WTO rules, a country imposing anti-dumping duties must prove its domestic industry has been injured by cheap imports from a specific country.

The dispute comes only days after EU trade officials approved pre-emptive penalties on imports of steel pipe from China, viewed by some as a protectionist move intended to mitigate the effects of the economic downturn within the 27-state bloc. 

In a statement from its WTO mission in Geneva, China said the commission had failed to comply with the trade watchdog's rules when it investigated the imports and imposed the measures.

"The determinations made are neither impartial nor transparent, which infringes the legitimate commercial interests of over 1,700 Chinese fastener producers," it said. 

It said the EU had been inconsistent in its application of the rules given that two Chinese subsidiaries of European firms – Italy's Agrati and Celo of Spain – were exempt from the duties. 

However, the European Commission said the measure was fully in line with WTO rules. "Anti-dumping measures are not about protectionism, they are about fighting unfair trade.

"The decision to impose measures was taken on the basis of clear evidence that unfair dumping of Chinese products has taken place with state distortion of raw material prices," Lutz Guellner, trade spokesman, said.

Between last September and June, other WTO members, particularly the US, India and European countries, brought 77 cases worth a total of $9.8bn against China, more than double the number of cases in the same period a year earlier, Chinese state media reported.

Until recently, China has been reluctant to use the WTO to defend its interests. However, it has now decided to engage more directly to ­protect its businesses, according to reported comments from Zhou Xiaoyan, deputy director of the China Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports and Exports.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

WIPO's new Arbitration and Mediation Centre in Singapore

The WIPO, which has close working relationship with the WTO on IPR issues, has announced the establishment of a new Arbitration and Mediation Centre (AMC) in Singapore, reportedly the first such centre outside Geneva.

I have previously blogged about the possibility of the WTO relocating to SG or HK. Now that the WIPO has made the move, will the WTO follow suit?

From Rule Takers, Shakers to Makers: How Japan, China and Korea Shaped New Norms in International Economic Law

On 1st and 2nd of August, the Asian Society of International Law will hold its second biennial conference in Tokyo. While I would not be physically there, my fellow co-authors Saadia M. Pekkanen and Dukgeun Ahn  will present out joint paper on "From Rule Takers, Shakers to Makers: How Japan, China and Korea Shaped New Norms in International Economic Law". For more information on the conference, please see here. Below are the first few lines of the paper:

    While the rise of Asia in the international economy has been widely noted, much less appreciated is the way in which that rise has interacted with the forces of international economic law (IEL). Perhaps the most dominant perception among both legal scholars and social scientists is still that formal law does not play much of a role in the East Asian region – that its institutions are weak, that it has a preference for non-legalistic methods and non-binding commitments which also extend to dispute settlement mechanisms, and that in contrast to highly legal systems as, for example in Europe, far more weight should be given to the competition of national economies and ethnic groups in growing markets than legal dimensions in the case of Asia even today.

     This very conceptualization that goes within and across Asian countries has also been extended to their behavior at the multilateral and international levels. Yet even those holding to the contrast between high levels of legalization in Europe and North America and low ones in the case of Asia in the early 2000s had also begun to note the increasing role of formal law in Asia. This shift towards legalism has been most prominent at the global multilateral level as a number of works have stressed the importance of law and legal processes by and for Asian countries in contexts such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as through burgeoning Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). In this paper we go further and take the first systematic steps towards a comparison of the activities of the dominant players in contemporary Asia, namely China, Japan, and Korea (CJK) with the goal of bringing them into mainstream debates and controversies in IEL.

      Using an interdisciplinary approach combining political economy approaches with legal scholarship, we aim to show how legalization has become a force to contend within Asia. By legalization we mean specifically that, in significant contrast to the past, Asian countries have begun to stress the dimensions of precision (unambiguous rules to require, authorize, or proscribe action), obligation (rules or commitments to bind action), and delegation (third parties to implement, interpret, and apply the rules for disputes or further rule-making) in a wide range of their economic relations. To be clear, we are not stressing that by doing so they are moving toward legal integration, where like the European and Andean cases, formal or informal moves help create a seamless rule of law affecting domestic actors and international tribunals. Rather, driven by their activities at the global, multilateral and now increasingly regional levels, the moves toward legalization should be seen as an evolutionary move toward the creation of the rule of law across borders. Thus as Asian states have begun to stress the dimensions of precision, obligation, and delegation in their economic relationships at present, the sum total of their moves may well go on to have significant implications for the creation of such rule of law systems in the future particularly in their foreign economic diplomacy.

     Put simply, then, our main contention in this paper is that Asian states are no longer merely passive rule-takers in a system of IEL still widely thought to be dominated by Western countries, principally the United States and European Communities. Rather, as their economic clout has risen at both the global and regional level, key Asia states such as CJK have become aggressive users of the dispute settlement system of the WTO with novel directions in their domestic institutional landscapes; and they have also moved well beyond the narrow confines of the WTO-centered system to shape even regional and cross-regional legal frameworks to their advantage. How and why did things come to this? What exactly are the legal consequences both for IEL and these countries' domestic legal systems? What does the sum total of these sequential changes portend for the rule of law in CJK and other Asian countries more broadly?

     The remainder of the paper is in three parts. The first part provides an analytical framework that stresses the rise and significance of commercial interests operating across borders, irrespective of whether the source is public or private in nature. Thus we are less concerned with whether a government or a business is responsible for economic flows across borders than with the fact that those flows are taking place. It also provides a brief statistical background, placing Asia's economic weight in global and regional context. Although we look at East Asia more broadly in the paper, we focus on the relative weight of dominant regional players, namely CJK which also go on to form the bulk of the analysis in this paper. The second part turns to the empirical evidence, focusing on substantial changes at both the international and domestic levels over the past twenty years that deserve close attention. At the international level, in breaking with their own tradition of being reluctant litigants, CJK along with other East Asian states have started to "shake" the existing power structure by actively using the existing legal rules to advance and defend their own interests in a policy shift to "aggressive legalism." This ongoing policy shift is one of the core elements for fortifying the "rule-based" WTO system, as well as strengthening the trend toward regional interaction on the basis of rules. But these same states have also moved well beyond the WTO-centered system in the 2000s more visibly, as they have actually started to "make" new norms by proposing new rules at the multilateral level and creating a web of legal agreements at the inter-regional and intra-regional level that aim to reflect their own interests. These instruments span trade, investment, and finance, and are a harbinger of the continued legalization of Asian economic relations. The third part concludes, focusing on the implications of the analytical and empirical evidence for the future of the rule of law in the multilateral and regional system more broadly.

WSJ: U.S. Wins Trade Dispute With China Over CDs, DVDs

WSJ: U.S. Wins Trade Dispute With China Over CDs, DVDs  

Associated Press

GENEVA -- The U.S. has largely prevailed in a trade dispute with China over restrictions on the sale there of American CDs, DVDs, books and computer software, two officials familiar with the ruling have told The Associated Press.

The confidential verdict from the World Trade Organization victory comes as the administration of President Barack Obama is being pressed to be tough over trade rules with China, whom many Democrats in the U.S. Congress blame in part for America's soaring trade deficits and lost manufacturing jobs.

The ruling in the case, filed during the preceding Bush administration, was released to Beijing and Washington last month, but will only be made public on Aug. 12. It finds that Beijing is breaking commerce rules by forcing U.S.-made goods from magazines to video games to be sold through Chinese state-owned companies, the officials said.

But, as with most WTO rulings, the officials say the ruling stops short of a complete U.S. victory as the three-member panel delivered mixed findings on Chinese censorship rules that apply to American-made goods, but not to Chinese products. It also permits China to make U.S. films go through one of two designated distributors to be shown in Chinese cinemas, a requirement not required of Chinese movies.

The officials who had reviewed the ruling spoke on condition of anonymity because of confidentiality rules ahead of publication. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Chinese Commerce Ministry have declined to comment.

The ruling will also be of interest to a variety of American media producers from Hollywood to Silicon Valley, who argue that discriminatory Chinese rules are costing American media companies millions of dollars. The dispute includes a complaint about Chinese censorship of music recording downloads in China, such as those sold by Apple Inc.'s iTunes store.

The WTO can authorize retaliatory sanctions against countries unwilling to bring tariffs, subsidies and other trade practices in line with international agreements, but generally only after years of litigation. Washington and Beijing can appeal the verdict.

The decision was handed to the governments on June 23, the same day the United States and European Union hauled China to the WTO over allegations Beijing was favoring domestic industry by limiting exports of materials needed to produce steel, aluminum and other products.

Beijing retaliated by saying it would ask for a formal WTO investigation into an American ban on Chinese poultry, as months of relative calm between the two trading powers ended.

When the WTO launched the investigation in November 2007, it marked the fourth official U.S.-China dispute in little over a year as ex-President George W. Bush's administration stepped up pressure on Beijing.

The Geneva-based trade body backed the Bush administration, Canada and the 27-nation European Union by ruling that China was illegally blocking imports of foreign-made auto parts. Last year it also partly sided with Washington in a separate dispute over Chinese product piracy and counterfeiting, while a U.S.-Mexican complaint over Chinese government subsidies in manufacturing was settled out of court.

Washington's trade deficit with Beijing rose 4.4% to $17.5 billion in May, but is running 12.6% below last year. American manufacturers see the undervalued yuan as the major culprit in the trade deficit with the Chinese, which last year hit $266 billion, the highest recorded with one country.

Copyright © 2009 Associated Press

Yang Yi on China's Trade Remedy Investigations

中国反倾销立案调查提速

2009年07月10日 22:58经济观察报【大 中 小】 【打印】 0位网友发表评论

张斌 刘丹

全球金融危机以来，国际贸易保护主义抬头，贸易摩擦不断。今年上半年，与中国有关的贸易纠纷涉案金额已经超过了去年全年。本周，俄罗斯扣押温州商人，一大批商品可能再次被销毁的消息，再度引起关注。

对此，去年下半年以来，作为负责维护国内产业安全的商务部产业损害调查局，加大了对贸易救济案件的产业损害调查力度。

“总体而言，金融危机之下，中国国内企业的产业控制力在上升。”商务部产业损害调查局局长杨益在7月10日接受本报专访时说，这一现象并未被外界所关注。

经济观察报：产业安全在中国是如何界定的？目前中国的行业中，是否存在产业安全的问题？

杨益：对产业安全的评估，有几个体系，也存在一些争议。有的从产业控制力来看，认为国内企业或国有企业占某个产业的比例大，产业就是安全的；有的则是从竞争力的角度评价，如果这个产业有竞争力就被认为是安全的。

我们认为，产业安全是国家经济安全的重要组成部分，主要指一个国家的各个产业发展和产业利益不受内部和外部因素破坏和威胁的状态。整体来看，中国的产业是安全的，但是部分产业和企业所面临的低价过量进口冲击也不容忽视。

事实上，入世之后，中国产业安全的状况有很大的改善。从去年来看，产业安全最大的威胁就是金融危机的冲击。我们的重点产业，都遭受了金融危机的影响，这是非常明显的。

经济观察报：金融危机对我国各个行业有怎样的影响？

杨益：全球金融危机对中国金融业本身影响不大。对中国产业的影响主要是通过外部市场需求的减少、萎缩传导进来。总体来说是外向度比较高的产业受冲击 大。按顺序来说，去年初的时候是纺织、轻工，到年中的时候，就是钢铁、石化产品。到去年三、四季度和今年年初的时候是电子信息产业、重要农产品[11.10 1.19%]和服务业等了。

从今年上半年来看，十大产业振兴规划的作用还是非常明显的。首先应该是汽车，势头很好。到6月份，中国汽车市场应该是世界第一了。然后是钢铁、家电在内需拉动下有回暖迹象。

经济观察报：外资并购是否影响到了中国的产业安全？

杨益：我们专门研究过跨国并购和产业安全，在金融危机的背景下，我们内资企业的控制力在增强。因为，在这个过程中，很多的跨国公司财富正在缩水，中 国的公司，主要是上市公司，虽然也缩水，但是比例小一点。这样，一个产业中内资企业的控制力反而在上升，这是大家都没有注意到的。

经济观察报：金融危机之后，反倾销反补贴这种案件的增多对中国的产业是否形成一定的威胁？

杨益：这个威胁是比较大的，维护产业安全的形势是非常严峻的。

金融危机下，一方面各国的需求都在萎缩下降，各国政府都出台一系列提振经济的措施，增加国内的需求。另一方面，为了转嫁危机，拯救国内的市场，贸易保护主义也在盛行。

表面上，各个国家包括二十国集团会议都表示要抵制贸易保护主义，很多国家也承诺不会出台贸易保护措施，但往往是会议刚刚结束不到几天，就纷纷出台了 贸易保护措施。世贸组织7月1日发布的报告显示，在过去的3个月内，24个国家和地区共出台了83项限制贸易的措施，是同期贸易自由化措施的两倍多。

作为世界第三大贸易体，中国是遭遇贸易摩擦的主要对象。去年全球有21个国家对中国发起了93起贸易纠纷，涉及到进出口金额是62亿美元。今年1—6月份，已经有15个国家和地区对中国发起了 “两反两保”调查60起，案件数同比上升了11%，金额达到了82亿美元，这个已经超过了去年全年的涉案金额。

经济观察报：针对这种情况，中国采取了怎样的应对措施？

杨益：在这种情况下，运用WTO规则来维护产业安全、维护企业的合法权益，非常重要。作为商务部调查机关，我们非常重视这方面的工作。

从应对来说，在宏观层面，加大了对应对工作的指导，同时也积极与相关的WTO成员，相关的国家和政府进行沟通和磋商。

企业自身在贸易纠纷中依法维护自己的利益方面，也取得了较好的成果。

另一方面，一些外国产品通过低价倾销冲击中国市场，对国内的产业造成了很严重的冲击和影响。从去年下半年以来，这种现象在增多。国内企业、行业协会要求维权，制止这些不正当行为的诉求也在增多。

所以去年下半年以来，我们加强了产业损害预警监测，加大了立案调查的力度。到现在为止，已经发起了9起反倾销调查和1起针对美国的反补贴调查。

中国长期遭受美国和其他西方国家的反补贴调查，我们从1997年就制定了反补贴条例，今年6月1日公告立案的取向电工钢案是我对外发起的第一例反补 贴案。该案涉及两个国家，对美国是反倾销和反补贴合并调查，对俄罗斯是反倾销。另外，涉案金额也在增加，今年上半年发起的一起反倾销调查(对苯二甲酸)， 涉案金额达36亿美元。

经济观察报：现在这种敏感时期加大贸易救济调查力度，会不会被其他国家指责为贸易保护？

杨益：中国政府坚决反对贸易保护主义，积极维护公平竞争的市场环境。我们的立案数增加，也是因为金融危机下这些不公平的贸易行为增多。

另一方面这是企业的诉求，他们有要求。作为政府机关，按照相关法律和条例规定，企业提出申请之后，符合反倾销的规则和反倾销条例的程序的，就可以立案调查。

相比而言，中国的调查机关运用贸易救济措施是非常审慎的。我们可以很自豪地说，从1997年办第一起案子到现在为止一共是59起反倾销案，还没有哪一起被对方诉讼到WTO。

WSJ: China spy charges roil Australia

JULY 9, 2009

China Raises Stakes in Espionage Case

By ANDREW BATSON, ALEX WILSON and RACHEL PANNETT

China said a detained Australian mining executive and three colleagues "stole Chinese state secrets for a foreign country," escalating Beijing's business dispute with a major supplier and straining the economic relationship between two nations that depend on each other for growth.

Authorities have held four Shanghai-based employees of mining giant Rio Tinto PLC since Sunday. China's government broke its silence on the case Thursday, with foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang saying prosecutors have evidence that the employees stole state secrets, "which hurt China's economic interests and economic security."

Mr. Qin didn't say what secrets are alleged to have been stolen. Reports in the Chinese press Thursday, which an official at the State Security Bureau in Shanghai said were accurate, said the allegations relate to the employees' actions in negotiations -- which have yet to be resolved -- between Rio Tinto and Chinese steelmakers on the price of iron ore.

Adding to tensions, Rio Tinto last month walked away from a $19.5 billion deal to expand an alliance with Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chinalco, in favor of a tie-up with fellow Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton Ltd.

The Australian government had played down suspicions that the case is related to Rio Tinto's business dealings in China.

Three of the detained employees Chinese citizens; one of them, Stern Hu, general manager in China of Rio's iron-ore division, is an Australian of Chinese descent. The broad reach of China's state-secrets law, which has in the past been used to jail journalists and scholars, means it could cover the commercial information of state firms.

The detentions have stunned the Australian mining industry and sparked a fierce reaction from opposition politicians. In Australia, anti-China sentiment has been simmering for months as some worry about a surge in Chinese firms buying into Australian resource companies.

China has had mixed diplomatic success as it scours the world to secure energy and materials to feed its fast-growing economy. It has spent the past several years trying to build up better relations with resource-rich nations in Africa and Latin America. It has offered aid and investment to developing countries poorer than itself, and a sympathetic ear to governments not well received in the West. But China's business dealings haven't always been welcome in other countries, and the Communist Party has often not been adept at swaying foreign public opinion.

"China is now facing a great challenge. Its economy is expanding, its ties with other countries are getting closer, but frictions are also increasing," said Jia Qingguo, professor of international studies at Peking University. "It is very difficult for China to convince other countries of its good intentions."

The economic interests of China and Australia are now locked together, with Australia's iron-ore miners and China's steel industry depending heavily on each other. Australia is the world's biggest exporter of iron ore, expected to account for 40% of global seaborne iron ore produced in 2009, while China is by far the biggest importer, set to account for 62% of imports of seaborne ore this year, according to Goldman Sachs JBWere.

China has built up the world's largest steel industry to supply its voracious demand for the metal as it expands its cities and adds roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

Scholars in both China and Australia say that economic interdependence will likely push the two governments to find a way to work through the current problems. "Even if the charges are found to be unfounded, it won't make a really serious dent in the nature of the relationship which at this stage is economic and strategic," said Michael McKinley, an expert in global politics at Australian National University.

Yet increasing tensions with China aren't what most people expected from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd when he and the center-left Labor Party won office in November 2007. Mr. Rudd, a former diplomat in China and fluent Chinese speaker, was expected to forge closer ties with China and de-emphasize relations with traditional allies like the U.S.

Mr. Rudd has indeed sought to engage with China, meeting with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao on his first overseas trip in April 2008. But he has also been careful to stress that China's rise as an economic power poses challenges for Australia. In May, his government unveiled plans to beef up defense spending over the next two decades, in part to counter China's increasing military presence in Asia.

Mr. Rudd, who is in Italy for a forum on the sidelines of the Group of Eight meeting in L'Aquila, hasn't directly intervened in the detention of the Rio employees. He told reporters he has no plans to call his Chinese counterparts to discuss the situation and is leaving it to the foreign ministry.

On Friday, Australian consular officials will be able to visit Stern Hu, the Australian citizen detained in the investigation.

Mr. Rudd's government has been wrestling with how best to handle a surge of investment by Chinese state-owned enterprises in Australia's mining sector. So far this year, more than $6 billion of such investments have been announced, more than double all of last year. The detention of Mr. Hu and the other Rio employees, who are Chinese citizens, could complicate the situation for Chinese firms now going to Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board, analysts say.

"It is bad for anybody who is Chinese and in front of FIRB at the moment," one person with experience of Chinese investment in Australia said. "Until the Australian government understands what China is trying to do with the Australian citizen who has been arrested I can't imagine they will be clearing anything," this person said.

One company in the application pipeline is Lynas Corp., a rare-earth miner that is seeking approval for a 500 million Australian dollar (US$386.5 million) investment from China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co.. The FIRB declined to comment.

The strains with a key trading partner aren't unprecedented in Australia. In the 1970s, Japanese companies were investing in Australian resources for the same reasons China is now. At the time, Japan's involvement raised the ire of some Australians -- but has since been broadly recognized as providing much-needed funds for development.

"The current situation is largely the same," said Hou Minyue of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University. "There is a process the two countries need to go through to understand each other."

-Aaron Back contributed to this article.

Chen Deming on Protectionism in La Repubblica

意大利《共和国报》刊登陈德铭部长署名文章《中国言行一致反对保护主义》
2009-07-06 14:43  文章来源：商务部新闻办公室
文章类型：原创  内容分类：新闻

　　7月6日，意大利《共和国报》刊发了商务部长陈德铭的署名文章《中国言行一致反对保护主义》，全文如下：

中国言行一致反对保护主义

中国商务部部长 陈德铭


　　开放的贸易和投资体系是促进世界经济增长的重要动力。当前世界经济出现企稳迹象，但前景仍然有很大不确定性。继续坚定不移地反对保护主义，推进市场开放，保持贸易和投资渠道畅通，对世界经济能否巩固复苏势头至关重要。

　　中国是经济全球化重要参与者和受益者。反对保护主义，中国绝不是空喊口号、徒做姿态。目前，中国关税总水平为9.8%，其中农产品平均税率为 15.2%，仅为世界平均水平的1/4。2002—2008年，中国累计从世界进口了4.8万亿美元商品，年均增速达到25.1%，进口增量占世界同期的近9%。中国已成为世界第三大进口国。截至2008年底，中国实际利用外资超过8500亿美元，现存运营外资企业约28万家，绝大多数实现盈利。在汽车、手机、化妆品、家电等重要消费品领域，外国品牌和进口产品分别占据了中国市场70%、75%、75%和50%的份额。

　　在应对金融危机过程中，中国政府始终奉行互利共赢的开放战略，积极主动加强与世界各国的经贸合作，维护多边贸易体制，同舟共济、共克时艰。在已经实施的刺激经济计划中，中国遵守WTO相关规定，平等对待国内外产品，为外国企业提供了大量商机。今年以来，中国还先后组织多个投资贸易促进团赴欧美，扩大对相关国家的进口和投资贸易合作，以实际行动表明中国反对保护主义的鲜明立场。

　　近期，一些西方媒体报道中国将在经济刺激计划中实行所谓“购买中国货”的政策，认为中国转向保护主义。这是一种误解。前不久，中国政府有关部门为了规范政府采购行为，依据中国的《政府采购法》，重申了财政性资金的政府采购应优先购买本国产品的原有规定，针对的主要是部分地方在招标采购中歧视本国产品的做法。规定所指的本国产品也包括依法在中国设立的外商投资企业产品。事实上，中国经济刺激计划中的大量投资是社会投资，许多外国企业正在从中国实行的积极扩大内需的宏观经济政策中受益。例如，为了扩大农村消费，中国政府以财政补贴的方式鼓励农民购买家电，不少外资品牌的产品就在这项被称为 “家电下乡”的政策中中标入围，享受了中国政府的支持政策。中国目前尚非WTO《政府采购协议》成员，上述相关规定没有违背国际义务。中国政府也愿意进一步对外开放政府采购市场，希望有关成员能够本着灵活务实的态度，降低要价，为中国早日加入《政府采购协议》创造条件。
　
　　我要特别指出的是，并不是中国在搞贸易保护主义，中国恰恰是贸易保护主义的最大受害者。据WTO统计，2008年中国遭遇反倾销调查73起、反补贴调查10起，分别占全球案件总数的35%和71%，是全球遭遇贸易救济调查最多的成员。今年上半年，中国遭受的反倾销、反补贴、保障措施和特殊保障措施等贸易救济调查多达58起，涉案金额超过80亿美元。中国不会以贸易保护对抗贸易保护，但我们强烈呼吁世界各国恪守各国领导人多次做出的共同反对贸易保护主义的郑重承诺，不要让于事无补的贸易保护主义延缓世界经济复苏的步伐。

　　意大利是中国在欧盟的重要经贸伙伴之一，2008年双边贸易达383亿美元。中意两国经济有很强的互补性，意大利工业设计、创意产业、时尚产业世界领先，拥有众多著名品牌。中国基础制造成本低，配套体系完整，正加速推进传统产业升级改造。两国合作潜力巨大。在金融危机影响仍在继续、世界经济复苏前景还不确定的形势下，凝聚共识，携手合作，以实际行动抵制贸易和投资保护主义，这对双方和全世界都是十分有益的。我们应当以胡锦涛主席对意大利的成功访问为契机，推动两国业界积极行动起来，把机遇变成实实在在的合作成果，促进中意经贸合作再上新台阶。

Green Dam-equipped PC shipped by Sony

Sony has started shipping PC pre-installed with Green Dam but included a disclaimer on the software with the machine.

Green Dam postponed

工业和信息化部新闻发言人就绿色上网过滤软件问题答记者问
【发布时间:2009年06月30日】 【来源：新华社】 【字体：大 中 小】

　　  ６月３０日，工业和信息化部新闻发言人就绿色上网过滤软件问题，回答了记者的提问。

　　  一、为什么要开展绿色上网过滤软件工作？这项工作的目的是什么？

　　  互联网淫秽色情等有害信息问题已引起社会的广泛关切，我国政府有关部门开展了依法打击网络淫秽色情专项行动，但网上淫秽色情等有害信息仍然存在。社会各界尤其是广大师生、学生家长要求政府有关部门采取有效措施，营造绿色健康的网络环境。

　　 为了保护未成年人免受网络淫秽色情等有害信息的影响，工业和信息化部依据《全国人民代表大会常务委员会关于维护互联网安全的决定》、《中华人民共和国未成年人保护法》等法律规定，顺应社会各界要求，在有关部门的支持下，于５月１９日发文，要求在我国境内生产销售和进口销售的计算机预装“绿坝－花季护航 ”绿色上网过滤软件。这一工作遵照《中华人民共和国政府采购法》规定程序，以国家出资购买的方式向社会提供免费使用，目的就是为了从源头上防范有害信息对未成年人的影响。

　　保护未成年人免受网上淫秽色情等有害信息影响，是世界各国的共识。很多国家都不同程度地采取了法律、技术等多种手段，为未成年人提供安全的上网环境。今年世界电信和信息社会日的主题就是“保障儿童网上安全”。

　　营造绿色健康的网络环境，防止未成年人受到淫秽色情等有害信息毒害，政府部门和全社会都有责任和义务。这个方向是正确的，是不容置疑的。

　　二、绿色上网过滤软件免费下载，在中小学校、网吧等公共场所安装使用的情况和效果如何？

　　绿色上网过滤软件的推广主要采用了网络自由下载、首先在中小学和网吧安装使用等方式。２００９年４月，教育部联合财政部、工业和信息化部、国务院新闻办共同发文，部署全国中小学校园计算机终端安装使用“绿坝－花季护航”过滤软件。截至２００９年５月底，“绿坝－花季护航”软件累计实现下载７１７．２５万次，校园安装使用数量达到２６１．８万台，网吧推广装机量达到４６９．９２万台。经第三方机构测试，“绿坝－花季护航”软件对有害信息的拦截率达到９０％。软件使用简单，维护便捷，受到了广大师生和学生家长的好评，呼吁政府有关部门在更大范围内推广。

　　三、这次绿色上网过滤软件采购是否符合政府采购的有关规定？是否符合ＷＴＯ的相关规定？

　　工业和信息化部严格按照《政府采购法》有关规定，遵循公开、公平、公正、无排他性和自觉接受监督的原则，面向社会公开征集绿色上网过滤软件。又历经测试、评审等环节，最终确定了中标产品和采购金额。采购的内容除产品使用权外，还包括软件适应性改造、提供免费下载安装和升级以及建立呼叫中心和网上答疑等多项技术支持和售后服务内容。此次政府采购符合程序，公开透明，全程是在有关部门的严格监督下进行的。

　　 《政府采购法》中明确规定，政府采购应采购本国货物、工程和服务。采购过程公开透明、程序严谨。绿色上网过滤软件有关工作是一项公益行为，不涉及技术、标准和贸易关系，符合ＷＴＯ的相关规定。

　　四、预装绿色上网过滤软件是否强制用户使用？是否会对用户的信息、上网行为形成监控？

　　绿色上网过滤软件是计算机终端的内容过滤软件，主要采用内容过滤技术实现对互联网淫秽色情等文本和图像信息的过滤功能，避免未成年人受互联网淫秽色情等有害信息毒害。无论是通过网络免费下载，还是在计算机中预装，用户均可自由选择安装、卸载，自主启用、关闭软件各项功能。该软件根本没有收集用户信息、监控上网行为的功能。

　　境外少数媒体和机构就此事进行不实报道，指责此举妨碍信息自由流动、侵犯个人隐私等，这些言论是没有根据的，也是不负责任的。

　　五、绿色上网过滤软件的安全性如何？目前和未来出现的安全隐患如何解决？

　　绿色上网过滤软件在开发过程中已充分考虑到软件安全性问题，并多次委托第三方测试机构进行了测试。以补丁、升级等方式解决使用中发现的各种缺陷是软件厂商的通行做法。绿色上网过滤软件供应商已针对前期使用过程中反映的技术问题进行了升级，还将在后续推广应用中持续对软件进行升级和完善。欢迎社会各界提出进一步完善的建议。

　　六、“绿坝－花季护航”软件是否有涉嫌侵权的行为？

　　工业和信息化部高度重视和充分尊重软件知识产权。在绿色上网过滤软件谈判文件中，明确要求供应商应提供具有合法知识产权的软件产品参与投标，在签订合同时也明确要求其应具有合法知识产权。供应商做出了公开声明和郑重承诺。今后如有知识产权纠纷问题，将依照相关法律处理。

　　七、有些厂商提出，绿色上网过滤软件预装起始日期是７月１日，时间仓促，准备不足。这个时间表是否可以推迟？

　　我部于２００９年３月初召集了主要厂商就计算机过滤软件预装工作进行了交流，得到了众多计算机厂商的支持，在沟通的基础上确定了预装起始日期。近来，一些企业提出工作量大、时间仓促、准备不足。根据实际情况，可以推迟预装。本着坚持方向、分步实施的原则，７月１日后继续提供网络免费下载，继续在用于中小学校、网吧等公共场所的计算机上安装过滤软件，鼓励已装过滤软件的计算机厂商积极开拓市场。其他计算机如何预装，工业和信息化部将进一步征求各方意见，完善方案，改进方法，做好相关工作。

　　营造绿色健康网络环境，保护我国未成年人健康成长是一项艰巨的长期的任务，需要全社会给予更多的关心和支持。欢迎社会各界多提建设性意见，并对我们的工作给予支持帮助和批评监督。
　　

Green Dam - more

China's Green Dam filter vulnerable - researchers

Fri Jun 12, 2009 8:59am BST

BEIJING (Reuters) - A software filter mandated by the Chinese government leaves users vulnerable to malicious sites that might steal personal data or install code on the personal computer, researchers at the University of Michigan found.

China has mandated that the "Green Dam" software be preinstalled on all new computers made or shipped by July 1, saying that the move will protect children against pornography.

Many schools have already installed it. U.S. industry associations representing computer manufacturers have asked China to reconsider the requirement, based on concerns ranging from cyber-security and performance of the software to Internet freedoms.

Web sites can exploit vulnerabilities in the software to take control of the computer, according to a report by Scott Wolchok, Randy Yao and J Alex Halderman of the University of Michigan.

"This could allow malicious sites to steal private data, send spam, or enlist the computer in a botnet," said the report (www.cse.umich.edu/~jhalderm/pub/gd/).

"In addition, we found vulnerabilities in the way Green Dam processes blacklist updates that could allow the software makers or others to install malicious code during the update process."

Green Dam filters words and images, as well as web addresses.

Once installed, the program automatically closes Microsoft browser Internet Explorer if the user tries to access a blacklisted site, including those belonging to banned spiritual group Falun Gong, according to a user who is testing it.

Meanwhile, Chinese education departments are pressing ahead with installing the program, state media said.

About 4 million computers at all the 1,500-some primary and secondary schools in Shanghai will be equipped with Green Dam by the end of this month in order to block access to pornographic and vulgar software, the Xinhua news agency said on Friday.

About 48 percent of teenagers have visited porn Websites, Xinhua said, citing a survey released by the Chinese Youth Research Centre last month.

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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路透：中国国内电脑市场——绿坝的真正阻碍

(2009-06-30)中国最新推出的网络管制措施遭到了人权活动家和美国的质疑，但“绿坝”软件面临的真正困难可能来自于中国国内的电脑市场。

　　政府要求周三起所有电脑必须预装过滤软件“绿坝”，这一命令看起来很容易执行，但在中关村走一遭你就会发现，那里有很多卖电脑、软件——还有黄色光盘的人，这一计划的落实还面临很多困难。

　　关于绿坝，这里很多卖电脑软件的零售商要麽是不清楚它为何物，要麽就是觉得没什麽大不了。

　　在海龙大厦，一个卖戴尔笔记本电脑的20多岁的女子吴葆宝（音）反问到：“绿坝是什麽？”

　　“7月1号以後你要买电脑的话就会有这麽一个软件，” 她问完旁边店铺的销售人员後说到，“但别担心……我们可以很轻松地把它给卸下来。”

　　多年来跨国集团一直对中国政府打击盗版软件不力感到不满，但现在看来，这个缺乏监管的市场也有可能让政府头疼，绿坝最终的命运可能是被扫入垃圾箱，或者被束之高阁。

　　“绿坝计划严重破坏了市场规则。政府不应该强制推行某种品牌的软件，” 人民大学公共政策领域的教授毛寿龙在中关村路边说到，“但实际上的影响很有限。人们可以自愿选择，而且市场细分到如此程度，你也没法轻松控制住它。大公司 会遵守命令，但谁能指挥得动数千家小公司呢？”

　　中国“矽谷”

　　毗邻北京多家大学的中关村号称是中国的“矽谷”，微软、谷歌等众多IT巨头都在这里设有实验室或办公室。

　　中关村电子产品贸易商会告诉路透，这里有3,147家注册在案的电子产品零售商，去年个人电脑销量达240万部。但这还不包括很多没有注册的店铺。

　　现在这里比几年前干净多了，卖盗版软件的人也不那麽明目张胆了，但肯定还是有。

　　在中关村路边，你会看到一些抱小孩的、仪容不整的女子，装作若无其事地经过你的身边，飞快地在你耳边小声问你要不要盘。抱小孩是为了避免警察搜身。

　　跟着一个女人快速穿过堆满砖头的肮脏的小巷，成堆的色情光盘便会出现在你面前。

　　矽谷电脑城的销售人员杨福英（音）说，生意太不好做了，都来不及多想政府的绿坝计划。

　　“年中通常是淡季，经济危机一来就更糟糕了，” 他说，“我们会告诉顾客软件的事，但我觉得没什麽影响。你可以要麽卸了它要麽扔了它，那又能怎麽样呢？”

　　来源：路透社

《联合早报网》
（编辑：杨丽娟

Green Dam discussion at IELP blog

The PC Filtering Software Issue

From USTR:

Today U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk sent a joint letter to their counterparts in China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) urging China to revoke a proposed rule (Circular 226) that would mandate that all computers produced and sold in China pre-install a widely-criticized Chinese Internet filtering program called Green Dam. This proposed measure is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2009.

The letter points out that the proposed new rule raises fundamental questions regarding regulatory transparency and notes concerns about compliance with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, such as notification obligations. Locke and Kirk also listed for MIIT Minister Li Yizhong and MOFCOM Minister Chen Deming numerous concerns raised by global technology companies, Chinese citizens, and the worldwide media about the stability of the software, the scope and extent of the filtering activities and its security weaknesses. All of these problems have serious implications for consumers and businesses

"China is putting companies in an untenable position by requiring them, with virtually no public notice, to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues," Locke said.

"Protecting children from inappropriate content is a legitimate objective, but this is an inappropriate means and is likely to have a broader scope. Mandating technically flawed Green Dam software and denying manufacturers and consumers freedom to select filtering software is an unnecessary and unjustified means to achieve that objective, and poses a serious barrier to trade," Kirk said.

Both U.S. government officials offered China an opportunity to exchange views with U.S. and Chinese government and industry officials on ways in which parental control software can be promoted in the market consistent with the goals of user choice, system reliability, freedom of expression, and the free flow of information.

The USTR press release doesn't say much about the legal theory, and the letter that is mentioned has not, as far as I know, been made public.  So what is the legal claim?  The WSJ explains it as follows:

U.S. officials argue the tight deadline for implementing the software requirement constitutes an unfair trade barrier. PC makers have expressed concerns about being able to meet the July 1 start date.

Foreign and domestic PC makers in China are required to begin shipping computers with the software on July 1, so the U.S. would have to show Chinese manufacturers had more notice or information to meet that deadline for a WTO complaint to succeed.

More from Bloomberg here. 

Posted by Simon Lester on June 24, 2009 at 06:06 PM | Permalink

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Comments

Joe said...

So, how many computers sold in the US are produced in China? Would computers sold here to US consumers come pre-installed with Chinese software?

Reply June 25, 2009 at 06:41 AM

Julia Qin said...

There is a WTO-plus obligation of China in the Accession Protocol that may serve as a legal basis for the US complaint: China is required to "provide a reasonable period for comment to the appropriate authorities before [new] measures are implemented". The Green Dam rule was made public in early June, and the implementation date is July 1. The less-than-a-month period is probably not reasonable.

Reply June 25, 2009 at 09:12 PM

Henry Gao said...

I think there are at least two possible legal claims:
1. MFN. The software only has Windows version and doesn't have a Mac version. This means either Apple computers can be sold in China without pre-installing the software, or that Apple computers cannot be sold in China at all. Either way it's a violation of MFN;
2. Domestic content requirement: As the software is a domestically produced in China, requiring it in imported products would amount to a domestic content requirement in violation of TRIMS.

Reply Edit Delete The time to edit this comment has expired. June 25, 2009 at 11:05 PM