Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng said Thursday China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) three and a half years ago has brought little shock to domestic business.

Gao made the remark at a national working conference on industry security.

The growth of those industries enjoying comparative advantages has been accelerating, while weaker industries have not been affected greatly, he said.

During the past three and a half years, he acknowledged, China has rectified relevant laws and provisions and enacted new laws to meet the WTO commitments.

China has utilized all kinds of legal means to safeguard the security of domestic business during this period. It has launched 25 anti-dumping investigations and one safeguard investigation, he said.

Thanks to the optimized domestic industry structure, China's foreign trade volume has ranked third in the world after the United States and Germany, exceeding that of Japan, statistics show.

Gao noted that one reason Chinese industries have not been shocked by the WTO accession is that many industries are still in the WTO transition period, which protects them from possible impact of foreign competitors.

With the ending of the WTO transition period, domestic industries will face even tougher challenges and greater pressures, Gao said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 3, 2005)