The WTO Appellate Body released on January 30 WTO ruling on the appeal made by US, EU and Mexico on China’s raw material export restrictions.

Head of MOFCOM Department of Treaty and Law commented that China welcomes the support by WTO Appellate Body on China’s appeal for several important issues, which corrected part of the ruling by the panel, including ruling that the requests of the panel of US, EU and Mexico violated the regulations of Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes, i.e. the ruling of the panel were invalid on export quota allocation and administration, export licensing, minimum export prices and quota bidding, and that the interpretation by the panel were wrong on article 20 of GATT. Meanwhile, China regret that the WTO Appellate Body maintained part of the ruling of the panel, such as article 20 of GATT does not apply to China's defenses to export duties.

The Head said that the Chinese government has strengthened and improved administration on some products, especially those high pollution, high energy consumption and resources consumption products in order to meet the requirements of protecting the environment and the exhaustible natural resources. China believes that WTO rules not only focus on trade liberalization, but also allows members to take necessary measures to achieve policy objective of protecting resources and environment. And China will carefully evaluate WTO ruling, and enhance scientific administration in accordance with WTO rules on resource-consuming products, so as to achieve sustainable development.