China's foreign trade is still affected by trade disputes, though trade remedy investigations targeting Chinese products declined last year, an official of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Wednesday.
A total of 22 countries and regions launched 85 trade remedy investigations targeting Chinese products in 2015, down 12 percent compared with the number of cases in 2014, MOC spokesman Shen Danyang revealed at a press conference.
The probes involved 8 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, down 24 percent year on year, said the spokesman.
Trade disputes, however, tend to have a long-lasting negative effect on China's foreign trade, affecting 140 to 150 billion U.S. dollars in foreign trade annually, said Shen.
"Although trade protection measures target products, related industries suffer and upstream-downstream industries are also affected," said Shen.
China has been the target of more anti-dumping investigations than any other country for 21 straight years and of more anti-subsidy probes for 10 years running, according to the MOC data.
Sectors affected most by trade disputes are the steel industry, light industry, and the electromechanical and chemical industries, whose employment and competitiveness have been weakened, according to the MOC.
