Chinese exporters suffered a direct loss of $75.8 billion last year because of overseas technical trade barriers, a senior trade official said.

Zhang Xiangchen, director of the commerce ministry's department of WTO affairs, revealed the figure at a forum in Beijing yesterday. The figure reflects a 9.7 percent jump from a year earlier.

The finding was based on a survey of enterprises dealing with exports in 22 categories, including foodstuffs, native produce and animal by-products.

The survey showed 15.22 percent of Chinese exporting enterprises were affected by "certain technical barriers" in overseas markets last year.

Opportunities lost due to the technical trade barriers were worth $26.2 billion last year, up 20.74 percent from a year ago. The barriers also increased exporters' production costs by $2.62 billion.

Detailed influences on specific categories were not made available.

The technical trade barriers, involving changes to regulations and standards, have replaced import tariffs as the major threat to overseas exports, in particular to the markets in the European Union, the United States and Japan.

The major problems Chinese enterprises face when dealing with technical barriers is the lack of information, capital and resolution, Vice-Minister of Commerce Yi Xiaozhun said in an earlier interview.

Zhang said the government would provide assistance to Chinese exporters.

The export survey aimed to collect more information on the impact of certain technical barriers and help the government understand exporters' needs in a bid to better cope with various factors in the market landscape.

The government has also strengthened technical support to enterprises, Zhang said.

For example, after Japan implemented a "positive list" system that not only sets strict maximum agricultural chemical residue limits but also expands inspection criteria, the Ministry of Commerce, together with industry associations, held training sessions for agricultural product exporters on how best to deal with the new Japanese system.

(China Daily December 7, 2007)