Xie and his party boarded the plane and went to Germany via Shanghai to attend the "Zhejiang Week" held in Shanghai.
If all goes well, the Secretary-General of Zhejiang Wenzhou Shoe Leather Association will sign an investment letter of intent with the other party this week, which has been kept confidential since the negotiations-Wenzhou shoemaking enterprises will jointly invest 6 billion yuan to build a "Wenzhou Leather Shoes Industrial Park" in Germany in response to the increasingly severe anti-dumping measures taken by the European Union against China leather shoes.
It is also related to anti-dumping. At the end of August, Zhejiang issued the first local document, Interim Measures for Zhejiang Province to Deal with Export Anti-dumping.
A set of data from Zhejiang Foreign Economic and Trade Cooperation Office tells us that Zhejiang earns about half of the country's trade surplus; Zhejiang is also the region most seriously affected by export anti-dumping. From 2002 to 2005, the total number and total amount of anti-dumping in Zhejiang accounted for more than 40% of the whole country, and the major cases involved in anti-dumping investigations also increased year by year.
Some people say that Zhejiang province sneezed in the anti-dumping investigation and caught a cold in the national foreign trade. So, what caused Zhejiang to become the "hardest hit" of anti-dumping investigation?
The rapid growth of foreign trade "When you occupy the market of other countries like a bamboo, you will inevitably encounter resistance from the other side. Jin Yonghui, deputy director of Zhejiang Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Department, believes that one of the reasons why Zhejiang has become the "hardest hit" for anti-dumping investigations is the great development of Zhejiang's foreign trade in recent years.
He said that Zhejiang's export volume has continued to grow at a high speed, which has created greater competitive pressure on related industries in other countries. More and more foreign enterprises and industries require their governments to take various measures to restrict the import of China products, thus causing trade frictions such as anti-dumping and countervailing.
Non-market economy status "China's non-market economy status stipulated in the WTO agreement is also one of the important reasons why Zhejiang enterprises frequently suffer from anti-dumping investigations." Zhou Xiaoping, director of the Import and Export Fair Trade Division of Wenzhou Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau, believes that since China is in a non-market economy position, other countries can calculate the dumping margin according to the price of the commodity in a market economy country (that is, a substitute country) when conducting anti-dumping investigations against China, without using China's own data. The choice of substitute countries is arbitrary, and the dumping margin is easily overestimated, so the dumping judgment is easy to be established, which directly leads to more trading partners following up the anti-dumping investigation in China. For this reason, in recent years, following the United States and the European Union, Argentina, Turkey, Australia and other countries have gradually increased their anti-dumping investigations against Zhejiang.
Export commodities rely on low-price competition. According to Chen Zuoyong, a law professor at Zhejiang University, the reason why Zhejiang has attracted more "foreign lawsuits" is closely related to its own economic structure. Because it involves the interests of all parties, anti-dumping, green barriers, technical barriers and other means are increasingly used in the international trade market. At present, Zhejiang's export growth mode is still mainly quantitative growth, with a serious lack of independent brands, and its export commodities still rely on low-price competition, which can easily become the target of attracting "trade bombs" from other countries.
Zhu Kang, an economics professor at the Party School of Wenzhou Municipal Committee, agrees with this view. For example, he said that in the 1990s, the market price of metal windproof lighters made in Wenzhou was less than one dollar, and foreign manufacturers placed orders for production in Wenzhou. Seeing that this industry is profitable, almost overnight, more than 2,000 lighter manufacturers have sprung up in Wenzhou. In order to compete for the market, enterprises began to push down the prices of each other, and the price advantage evolved into a bloody "price war", from domestic to foreign, until it forced foreign counterparts to have no living space, and finally led to anti-dumping investigations.
Conflict of cultural concepts "The conflict of cultural concepts is the fourth reason why Zhejiang products frequently suffer from anti-dumping investigations." Zhou Xiaoping said that in many western countries, many businessmen believe that only in competitive negotiations can they find their own value; However, the vast majority of Zhejiang private entrepreneurs do not understand this feature of western trade culture. In the process of negotiation, they kept the price at the lowest point naked from the beginning, and there was no room for bargaining, which aroused the resentment of their opponents.
Zhu Feng, former secretary-general of Wenzhou Footwear Association, told reporters that Wenzhou people used to sell Wenzhou shoes directly in Spain, and all the profits from delivery to retail were "monopolized" and "exhausted". Wenzhou people thought this was a good thing, but they did not expect to trigger a series of chain reactions. Even local enterprises and workers have to fight "hard" with China shoe factory. In 2004, there was an incident of "burning Wenzhou shoes" in elche.
What is the basis for winning 80% of international litigation?
As the birthplace of China's private economy and one of the most developed areas of market economy, Wenzhou, located on the southern coast of Zhejiang, has always been the epitome of Zhejiang.
Zhou Xiaoping, director of the Import and Export Fair Trade Division of Wenzhou Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau, said that while Wenzhou's exports have grown rapidly since China's accession to the WTO, more than 20 kinds of products, such as glasses, lighters and shoes, have encountered various trade barriers, involving more than 400 enterprises, involving a total amount of 490 million US dollars. "As of the first half of this year, there were 4/kloc-0 cases of international trade barriers in Wenzhou, including 34 actionable cases and 23 respondent cases, with a response rate of 67.6%, closing 15 cases and winning 12 cases, with a success rate of 80%."
Analysts pointed out that if we know how Wenzhou people win 80% of "international lawsuits", our thinking on how to deal with anti-dumping in Zhejiang will be clear.
Strive for the legal rights protection of every inch of land 200 1 year 1 year 1 year 65438+3 One day after China's accession to the WTO, a notice issued by Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Trade on glasses protection measures caused an uproar in Wenzhou. Although the amount involved in this case is only US$ 6 million, accounting for only 1.3% of the total export of Wenzhou optical industry, even if it is abandoned, the impact will not be great, but considering the special relationship between Turkey and the EU, once Turkey wins the case, it is likely to cause other EU countries to follow suit and the market will have an avalanche reaction. Glasses manufacturers in Wenzhou thought twice and decided to respond immediately.
Organized by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Light Industry, Wenzhou 13 optical manufacturers entrusted lawyers to submit the defense against import barriers and related evidence to the Turkish government. Subsequently, under the leadership of the Fair Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce, representatives were sent to Turkey to lobby and negotiate repeatedly. Finally, the Turkish side changed its attitude and solved the problem.
This "international lawsuit" is called "the first battle of China's entry into WTO". Its successful experience of "being far-sighted, fighting for every inch of land, being fearless and defending rights according to law" has a far-reaching impact on Wenzhou people's subsequent response to frequent "international lawsuits".
The reason why Wenzhou people can win 80% of "international lawsuits" is related to Wenzhou's sensitive anti-dumping early warning mechanism.
As early as June 2003, Wenzhou took the lead in opening the first domestic import and export fair trade network, publicizing the basic knowledge of fair trade, informing anti-dumping early warning information, guiding enterprises to use WTO rules to protect industrial safety, and creatively constructing a trade barrier early warning system with Wenzhou characteristics.
They made full use of the advantages of more than 400,000 overseas Chinese in Wenzhou, and established a product early warning information base and an overseas market access information base to learn business information as soon as possible and feed back the latest early warning information to enterprises in time.
Multi-party linkage magic weapon "If we say that establishing an early warning mechanism and changing passive waiting for a rainy day have laid the foundation for Wenzhou's anti-dumping' international lawsuit', then multi-party linkage and Qi Xin's cooperation are the magic weapon for Wenzhou people to win 80% of the' international lawsuit'." Zhou Xiaoping said that whenever there is an anti-dumping investigation case, Wenzhou Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau immediately holds a coordination meeting to deal with anti-dumping, and the government, enterprises involved, trade associations and professional lawyers sit together and try to come up with ideas.
In response to the anti-dumping investigation, another organization has to mention that there are more than 0/00 autonomous trade associations in Wenzhou/KLOC, which have played an irreplaceable role in coordinating the organizations between the government and enterprises.
In 2002, the European Union put forward CR regulations, requiring lighters with a price below 2 euros to be equipped with safety locks to prevent children from opening them before entering the EU market. After receiving the notice of anti-dumping investigation, many lighter enterprises in Wenzhou are caught in a dilemma set by the other side: according to the relevant rules of WTO, the government cannot intervene in specific anti-dumping affairs; Going it alone, any enterprise obviously doesn't have this strength. After a long period of meditation, Wenzhou Smoking Equipment Industry Association decided to jointly respond to the lawsuit. They raised special funds for responding to lawsuits from the enterprises involved, invited legal experts to hold special analysis meetings, and worked out countermeasures while giving guidance: 15 enterprises submitted industrial non-damage defense, and 2 enterprises applied for market economy status. Then, Wenzhou Smoking Equipment Association formed the "China Folk First Group" to accompany the government departments to visit. After 8 days of EU/KLOC-0, many multilateral talks and negotiations were held on 10, which prompted the mandatory implementation of the CR Bill in June 19, 2004 to be shelved.
People in the "hardest hit areas" have backbone.
Analysts believe that if the "China People's First Group" trip to Europe is compared to a soft response, and it is understood that Zhejiang private enterprises are trying to evade anti-dumping investigations, then the Interim Measures for Zhejiang Province to Deal with Export Anti-dumping is a hard rule on how to deal with anti-dumping investigations in the future from the institutional level. One is soft and the other is hard, which shows the new trend of Zhejiang province to deal with anti-dumping investigations.
In the face of endless trade frictions, many enterprises in Zhejiang Province no longer take the old road of "hesitating, detouring" and "tit-for-tat lobbying", but use their brains to make a fuss about how to better "circumvent" trade barriers.
Set up factories overseas through joint ventures, joint ventures, acquisitions, etc., turn competitive relations into cooperative relations, and use interests to resolve trade frictions.
After the case of 200 1 Turkish glasses safeguard measures, Wenzhou Mingming Glasses Co., Ltd. invested and set up a factory in Turkey, and now it has become the third largest glasses manufacturer in the country. In that year, it drove exports of 4 million US dollars and successfully bypassed trade barriers.
In 2004, Wenzhou Hasan Shoes Co., Ltd. invested and established a leather shoes factory in Lagas, Nigeria, which gained benefits and was welcomed by the local government and people.
As a leading enterprise in china leather industry, Wenzhou Kangnai Group's vision is not limited to setting up factories abroad. Zheng Xiukang, president of Kangnai Group, told reporters that Kangnai's "new thinking" is to participate in the formulation of industry standards in developed countries in order to grasp the initiative of trade rules.
According to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, the number of overseas investment enterprises in Zhejiang ranks first in the country. By the end of August this year, overseas investment had reached $654.38+685 million.
Jin Yonghui, deputy director of Zhejiang Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Department, believes that trade friction is both a challenge and an opportunity. Regardless of the government, enterprises or the public, they should maintain a normal mentality and actively respond. " However, in order to improve the ability to resist international market risks, it is necessary to standardize the response to export anti-dumping. To this end, Zhejiang Province took the lead in promulgating the Interim Measures for Zhejiang Province to Deal with Export Anti-dumping (hereinafter referred to as the Measures).
The reporter noted that Article 23 of the Measures specifically listed the "Division of Duties" table, which clearly defined what governments at or above the county level should do, what the Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau should do, and what industry organizations and enterprises should do in the process of dealing with export anti-dumping. Chen Qiaoyan, the Fair Trade Bureau of Zhejiang Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Cooperation Department, who participated in drafting the Measures, said that this is the first case in China.
Another outstanding feature of the Measures is that it is clearly stated that enterprises are the main body of responding to the lawsuit. Chen Qiaoyan said that in the face of anti-dumping investigations, in the past, some enterprises did not respond or responded passively, taking advantage of the time difference between filing a case and ruling for one year to race against time to deliver more goods. If the lawsuit wins, take a "free ride"; The lawsuit was lost, and it was a big deal to take a photo and change places. This "hitchhiking" mentality often leads to the passivity or failure of the whole anti-dumping response, which brings temporary long-term pain.
In order to change this situation, the "Measures" made mandatory provisions for enterprises involved in responding to lawsuits. "In the future, enterprises that refuse to implement anti-dumping measures against exports will be notified and recorded in credit records."
According to PUFA of China. com
I think this anti-dumping in Zhejiang Province is more of a leading role.