2016年CRI China confident about economic ties with UK, EU: spokesman

Speaking with the media this week, the Commerce Ministry 1's Shen Danyang notes the European Union remains 2 China's largest trading partner and an important investment partner, while Britain still holds the distinction of being China's second largest trading partner inside the European Union - at least for now.

Despite the shock the Brexit vote gave global markets this past month, Shen Danyang says they remain quite confident about ties with both the EU and Britain.

"China always treats and develops Sino-EU and the Sino-UK trade relations from a strategic perspective. We support the Europe's own choice of development path and the integration 3 progress of Europe. China will work with the EU and the UK to deepen cooperation in various fields. And we will pay close attention to the situation and influence after the Brexit."

Shen Danyang admits the turbulence 4 in the international market following the Brexit will have a certain impact on Chinese companies investing overseas, as the external environment has become increasingly uncertain.

However, he says the overall impact of this will be short-term and limited.

"Looking from the mid-to-long term, the short-term impacts will not last long. The international investment environment will turn toward the better, and new business opportunities are still abundant. In general, there will still be more investment and cooperation opportunities for our companies abroad. We have good reason to believe our outbound investments will remain positive and stable."

The Commerce Ministry has also addressed recent concerns about trade protectionism, saying Chinese companies are facing a grim situation, as new data suggests one-third of all trade remedy measures being enacted 5 around the world are targeting China.

Commerce Ministry officials contend China has been the biggest target in the world for anti-dumping investigations 7 over the past 21 consecutive 8 years.

Shen Danyang has pledged that the Commerce Ministry is fully-prepared to safeguard the interests of Chinese companies.

"The Chinese government supports Chinese enterprises in dealing 9 with trade disputes according to the legal procedure of the country of import. We encourage consultations 10 among relevant parties to reduce trade frictions 11 and achieve mutual 12 benefit and a win-win result. As to the abuse of trade restrictive measures, China will resort to the dispute settlement mechanism 13 of the World Trade Organization if necessary in order to protect our legitimate 14 rights and interests."

Investigations launched by different countries through the World Trade Organization often result in initial tariffs 15 which are applied 16 to products being sent into their countries.

The money itself is held in a trust until the full investigation 6 is complete.

However, WTO trade disputes can take years to settle, meaning many companies are unable to continue to afford sending their products to countries which are imposing 17 the anti-dumping or countervailing duties, effectively creating a barrier to free trade.

For CRI, I'm Qi Zhi.