The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC) set up the two departments earlier this month in preparation for China's entry into the WTO. The WTO department is divided into six offices each staffed by four to eight people.

The department stems from an office under MOFTEC's Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs and has been responsible for China's bilateral and multilateral negotiations in its bid to become a WTO member over the last 15 years. The new department will take charge of China's multilateral negotiations in the new round of trade liberalization talks of the WTO.

Main tasks of the department are to make sure that China carries out its promises in the WTO goods trade and service trade agreements and that it lays down laws and rules in line with WTO rules.

Under the department are two offices that are responsible for answering the WTO's enquiries into China's trade policies and notifying the WTO of China's policies, laws and rules on trade and investment.

The fair trade bureau includes eight offices and has around 40 staff members.

Its responsibilities lie in conducting investigations into imports and determining whether anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and protective measures are applicable, together with the State Economic and Trade Commission, said the bureau's director-general, Wang Shichun, at a press conference on Monday.

The bureau is supposed to guide and co-ordinate local companies in responding to foreign charges of dumping and subsidy.

Wang said the fair trade bureau is also expected to investigate into other countries' discriminatory trade policies against China and to ensure that Chinese companies enjoy fair trade in the global market through negotiations and consultations with other countries.

In another development, the State Economic and Trade Commission established an agency earlier this year to monitor surging imports' injuries on domestic enterprises.

The Investigation Bureau for Domestic Industry Injury, restructured from the commission's Anti-dumping and Countervailing Office, has become operational, an official with the bureau said.

The bureau is to judge whether surging imports have caused or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic industries and to decide, along with the MOFTEC's fair trade bureau, whether to take anti-dumping, anti-subsidy or protective measures against the imports, said the official.

(China Daily November 27, 2001)