On the evening of December 27th, Cheng Yongru, Director of the Export Area Three of Department of Fair Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, gave a lecture entitled “Handling Trade Frictions with Professionalism” to our graduate students in Room 323 of the Institute of International Law. Director Cheng analyzed the recent examples of anti-dumping cases against Chinese color TVs raised by the United States, and then analyzed the characteristics of trade friction under the new situation from three aspects: global perspective, products and situation. By introducing the foreign anti-dumping situation against China in recent years, he explained the internal and external reasons for the large amount of trade friction. He pointed out that internal reasons include China's low-cost advantages, full competition and excessive competition, corporate social responsibility, industry self-discipline and intermediary organizations. External reasons include consumers' preference for China's low-end products, differences in interests of different groups, the breaking of international interest patterns, and the influence of international political factors. When talking about the issue of establishing a non-market economy status standard, Director Cheng analyzed the differences between the first explanatory note of Article 6 of GATT1947, the US standard and the European standard. He also introduced the issues related to Art.16 special protection and 242 textile special protection and the influence that trade friction has made on the stability and foresight of the export environment, industry and industrial chain, corporate burden, foreign investment and employment, structural adjustment and individual enterprise differentiation.

Director Cheng proposes to deal with trade frictions with professionalism, that is, to learn and respect international practices; to take into account both political and technical aspects; to target specific interests, to refine country classifications on a case-by-case basis, and to be daring to negotiate and to be good at negotiation; attach importance to foreign negotiations, flexibly apply bargaining chips; keep government and business communication smooth. He believes that the general principle of dealing with trade frictions is to "both political and technological, managing and governing both internally and externally." In the lecture, he introduced a large number of first-hand technical know-hows, and emphasized the professionalism to protect the company and strengthen communication with the international community. He hopes that everyone will actively invest in the study of trade frictions and improve the professional standards of China in dealing with trade frictions. After the lecture, Director Cheng had a positive interaction with the teachers and students present, answering the problems like copyright trade frictions, the interpretation and application of the word: Market Disruption, the WTO expert group review authority, and the development trends of trade labor standards in the WTO and so on. Professor Yu Minyou and Associate Professor Huang Zhixiong attended the lecture and participated in discussions on related issues. (Li Si finishing)