Chapter 806 The Chief's Earnest Expectations

The situation is indeed as Fan Wubing expected. This time, the first minister is willing to visit New Zealand in person, mainly because the negotiations between the two countries have made gratifying progress. The New Zealand government expressed its willingness to recognize China's market economy status at an appropriate time.

This information makes the domestic senior officials attach great importance to it. Just like when the new China was founded, Britain, as a very influential country in the West, recognized the status of the new China first. If New Zealand, also one of the developed countries in the West, can recognize China's market economy status, it will open a gap for China in the unbreakable camp of developed countries.

Once the gap is opened, the countries that are scrambling to establish deeper economic and trade cooperation with China will be tempted by huge interests, and the alliance created by the US government will have the opportunity to collapse.

Considering this situation, the first minister is so anxious to visit New Zealand, which will be reasonably explained.

China's market economy status has caused serious damage to enterprises, and the dispute between China and developed countries on China's market economy status has a long history. Although China has made great achievements in reform and opening up and market economy construction, the world's economic giants such as the EU and the United States have not recognized China's market economy status.

Last year, the EU's trade policy toward China began to change. It announced that it would remove China from the list of non-market economies, but still regarded China as a market transition economy country, allowing Chinese companies to argue market economy status in individual cases and obtain market economy treatment one by one.

In fact, since China's market economy status has not been recognized by the EU, when the EU determines whether Chinese goods are dumped in its territory at a price below cost, it does not refer to the price of a certain type of product in China, but to the price of similar products in other similar countries.

Due to the great incomparability between the selected third countries and the specific conditions of China, the EU has a great deal of arbitrariness and unfairness in its anti-dumping investigations against China. This has greatly affected the self-defense capabilities of Chinese companies in dealing with anti-dumping allegations.

To give a simple example, before 1993, China exported more than one million color TV sets to the EU each year. However, in 1993, the EU began to conduct anti-dumping investigations on Chinese color TV sets. During the investigation, the EU selected Singapore as the reference country, and Singapore's labor costs were more than 20 times that of China.

Under unfair reference, Chinese color TV sets were judged to be dumped.

A few years later, Chinese color TVs lost all their market share in the EU.

Therefore, the issue of market economy status has become a stumbling block for Chinese companies to deal with anti-dumping charges.

In recent years, China-EU trade relations have rapidly become closer.

Not only has the total trade volume between China and the EU increased, but the EU has become China's second largest trading partner. But at the same time, China has also become a disaster area for EU anti-dumping.

According to figures provided by the Ministry of Commerce, since my country encountered the first anti-dumping case in 1979, the EU has filed nearly 100 anti-dumping investigations against China, and the total number of cases filed against Chinese products ranks second only to the United States, affecting my country's export amount of about more than 4 billion US dollars, and the products involved basically cover all areas of exports to Europe.

Just like lifting the arms embargo on China, the EU still faces many obstacles in finally recognizing China's market economy status. From a technical perspective, the first problem is that the EU believes that there is a serious government intervention in the production and prices of some Chinese commodities, such as some resource commodities.

Secondly, the government has supported many large enterprises that cannot repay bank loans due to poor management, and exempted their debts in a non-market way through government decrees.

Third, since the EU began to review the market economy status of Chinese enterprises one by one last year, only a small number of enterprises are still considered to meet the requirements of the market economy. All of these have a significant impact on China's overall market economy status.

From the decision-making level, the EU's decision on this issue faces dual pressures from the industry and member states. In international trade, since tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers are greatly restricted, countries have to seek other more effective protection measures. Anti-dumping is a disguised protection measure recognized by the World Trade Organization.

In this case, if the EU recognizes China's market economy status, it will mean that China's ability to cope with anti-dumping will be greatly enhanced, and it will also mean that the EU's trade deficit with China may increase.

At present, the EU's trade deficit with China has reached nearly 10 billion euros. If it continues to increase, the pressure from the EU industry and member states will certainly increase.

Of course, political factors are also one of the factors that affect the EU's decision-making. The most notable example is Russia.

Although many people believe that China's economic liberalization index is far ahead of Russia, the degree of market economy development is also better than Russia, and Russia is not a member of the WTO, the EU is already considering formally recognizing Russia's market economy status.

The reason for this is naturally clear to everyone, but it is very difficult to operate. Therefore, after New Zealand expressed goodwill, China decided to strike while the iron is hot and open this hole first.

"Once China's market economy status is recognized by New Zealand, a Western developed country, it will have a very positive significance. First, from a macro perspective, this behavior has a very important demonstration effect on other countries. This means that China's reform and opening up and market economy construction achievements over the years have been recognized by Western developed countries. This is not just a trade issue, but also greatly beneficial to international politics and China's international image." Fan Wubing explained to Shen Ying, "Secondly, from a technical perspective, obtaining market economy status will be conducive to the further development of China's trade with New Zealand. It means that the cost calculation of Chinese goods will be more accurate, and the dumping investigation of Chinese companies will be more transparent, operational and fair. The self-defense capabilities of Chinese companies will be strengthened, thereby promoting the healthy development of bilateral trade."

"It turns out that there are so many things in this. You are worthy of studying international trade and know so much." Shen Ying said to Fan Wubing with a smile.

"This has nothing to do with the national trade I studied. I figured it out myself." Fan Wubing thought to himself, I only stopped at university for a few days? It would be strange if I could learn anything. I passed the exam by cheating at the beginning, but no one was willing to seriously investigate these things.

While the two were talking, Minister Wu of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation came over and introduced the representatives of the New Zealand Wool Industry Association to Fan Wubing and the others. After exchanging pleasantries, they sat down to drink.

"Why did he introduce us to wool sellers?" Shen Ying asked Fan Wubing in a low voice. They spoke in Chinese, so they didn't have to worry about the New Zealanders understanding.

"If you want people to work, you have to give them some benefits." Fan Wubing also answered in a low voice, "New Zealand has nothing else but wool everywhere, but it is very difficult to sell wool abroad now. Sales are saturated, so they are eyeing the world's largest consumer market, so, you know-"

"In international exchanges, everyone is really mean! Everything is put on the table, which is also open and aboveboard." Shen Ying said with a smile.

"Well, actually, diplomacy is like doing business. Whether the business is profitable or not, whether it is a loss or a profit, diplomats have a scale in their hearts. Whether they can do this business well depends on whether they meet a diplomat who knows how to balance." Fan Wubing said to Shen Ying, "Sometimes you should take advantage when you should take advantage, and you should suffer losses when you should suffer losses. Suffering losses or taking advantage blindly are not long-term solutions."

"Mr. Fan's words are profound!" The ambassador who was passing by heard what Fan Wubing said, and couldn't help but admired, "I have heard that Mr. Fan is talented and gifted, but after listening to these words, I know that this is true. As the saying goes, how can a great reputation not match his reputation? If Mr. Fan intends to mix in the diplomatic world, he must be a good hand."

Fan Wubing raised his glass and clinked it with the ambassador, and then said, "No more, it's all in the wine."

The ambassador clinked his glass with him knowingly, and then continued to greet other guests.

"Are you sure he's a diplomat?" Shen Ying said with a smile, "Why is he so good at flattering?"

"Of course, if you can't flatter, what big things can you do?" Fan Wubing also smiled.

However, this time, the No. 1 leader brought Fan Wubing to visit, and he did have some requirements, because the request made by New Zealand is to establish a wool sales channel with the mainland for a long time. In theory, this request is not excessive, but the problem now is that the number of sheep in New Zealand seems to be a little too much.

At present, there are at least 60 million sheep on the playground in New Zealand, nibbling on the grass and shearing wool. Such a huge number is indeed a bit frightening.

The domestic wool industry is actually oversaturated, and it is also considering the way of export. If so much New Zealand wool is added at this time, how much impact will it have on the industry?

In this way, it is more difficult to consume this wool by relying on the currently sluggish textile industry, but the request from New Zealand cannot be ignored, otherwise the loss to itself will be greater. Under this circumstance, the No. 1 leader first thought of Fan Wubing.

"Xiao Fan, you must help us with this!" When No. 1 had some free time, he patted Fan Wubing on the shoulder and spoke to him earnestly and with earnest expectations.