BEIJING: China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) stated it would strictly comply with the country’s relative laws as well as WTO rules in its probe on sugar imports, launched on September 22. Any excessive worries and speculation toward the case is unnecessary, MOFCOM spokesperson Shen Danyang told the Global Times on Tuesday at a briefing in Beijing. Shen’s comments followed Brazilian media reports stating that China’s probe into sugar imports placed a heavy burden on Brazil and that there were worries that the results would hit the Brazilian sugar industry as well as cause negative effects to the economic and trade relationship between the two countries.
“The ministry launched the probe following complaints from the domestic sugar industry,” Shen said. “China will be in strict accordance with its laws and WTO rules” and “any interested parties involved, including Brazil, can raise their concerns and demands during the investigation, which will be treated impartially,” he noted. The Chinese government did not specify which countries it would target in the probe, according to a statement posted on the MOFCOM website on September 22.
Although the Brazilian media speculation is unnecessary, their concerns are understandable because Brazil is one of the world’s largest sugar producers and China is the world’s top buyer, Sang Baichuan, director of the Institute of International Business at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in Beijing, told the Global Times on Tuesday. According to media reports, Brazil is China’s largest sugar import source. From 2011 to 2014, China’s annual sugar imports from the South American country accounted for more than 50 percent of its total imports.
“The domestic sugar sector has seen quite low profits and has been hit heavy by sugar imports in recent years; given such context, the probe launched by the government is in line with the world body’s trade remedy measures and would play a vital role in ensuring relative industries’ interests and farmers’ earnings,” Sang said.
