The mainland's trade relations with its two largest export markets are deteriorating after the World Trade Organisation and the European Union both launched investigations into alleged protectionism.
The US, the mainland's No 2 export destination, filed two complaints against China at the WTO yesterday, alleging the mainland imposed unfair tax treatments on US-made steel products and discriminated against US suppliers of electronic-payment services.
Separately, the EU is probing mainland government subsidies on Chinese-made wireless networking modems on top of previous investigations into alleged dumping and safeguarding in June.
Safeguarding refers to measures to protect local products.
This is the first time a Chinese export product has been involved in three types of investigation, prompting the Ministry of Commerce to say it was seriously concerned about the matter. 'The EU is protecting a company of a member country by abusing trade measures, disrupting the trade order and European consumer interests,' ministry spokesman Yao Jian said.
'This also goes against deepening Sino-European trade ties.'
The ministry has yet to react to the US complaints. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said the US was concerned that China was breaking its trade commitments to the US and other WTO partners by favouring a state-owned financial services firm, China UnionPay, to the exclusion of American credit and debit card companies. It also was 'manipulating trade-remedy investigations to unfairly restrict exports of American steel', Kirk said, adding the US wanted a level playing field.