China on Friday urged Japan to abandon the surrogate country approach it uses to calculate anti-dumping measures against Chinese exports, as a related clause in China's World Trade Organization (WTO) deal is set to expire on December 11.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the remarks at a routine press conference.
According to Article 15 of the protocol on China's accession to the WTO, to which Japan is a signatory, China will automatically switch to market economy status by December 11, 2016, when the legal foundation for treating China as a non-market economy - or a surrogate country - ends.
However, the Japanese government said Friday that it will not recognize China as a market economy under the WTO without changes to the country's policies.
By doing so, Japan can continue to use a third country's prices to determine whether China is selling goods below market value, making it relatively easy for Japan to level anti-dumping claims against China.
Lu said Japan should face up to its international commitment instead of beating around the bush. With regard to China's market economy status issue, Lu said that after nearly 40 years reform and opening-up, China's GDP has climbed to the world's number two, and China has become the biggest trade partner of many countries in the world.
China's economic growth has become the main engine of global economic growth, contributing to about one quarter of world economic growth, he said.
Whether Japan recognizes China as a market economy or not, China's close relationship with the world economy and its mutually beneficial relations with the world speak for itself, Lu said.
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