He Yongqian: Friends from the press, good afternoon. Welcome to the regular press conference of the Ministry of Commerce. I have no briefing to make today.

Now the floor is open.

Yicai: The opening ceremony of the 2024 CIFTIS was held this morning. President Xi sent his congratulatory message. What are the expectations for this year's CIFTIS? What is the plan of the Ministry of Commerce for developing trade in services?

He Yongqian: This morning, President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to CIFTIS 2024, sharing his vision to promote cooperation and common development and share opportunities with countries around the world, and reaffirming China’s strong commitment to drive high-quality development through high-standard opening-up. MOFCOM will act upon the instructions from President Xi Jinping’s congratulatory letter, promote institutional opening-up in service trade, facilitate cross-border flow of talent, capital, technology, data, and other production factors. We will inspire innovation in key areas, unlock the international market for service trade, improve the underpinning system for the development of service trade, and hold CIFTIS with high quality, so as to contribute to building the new economic system with high-standard opening-up at a faster pace, and to global economic recovery. Thank you.

China News Service: It is reported that Chinese officials will visit Europe for consultations on the EU's anti-subsidy case against China's electric vehicles. Could you give us more details?

He Yongqian: Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao will visit Europe in the coming days. He is scheduled to hold talks with European Commission Executive Vice President and Trade Commissioner Dombrovskis on September 19 to discuss the EU's anti-subsidy case against China's electric vehicles. Information on the visit and the progress of the consultations will be released in due course. Thank you.

Red Star News: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez joined the second meeting of the Chinese and Spanish Business Advisory Council during his recent visit to China. How does the Ministry of Commerce promote China-Spain economic and trade cooperation through this mechanism?

He Yongqian: The Chinese and Spanish Business Advisory Council was established in the witness of President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Sanchez when President Xi Jinping visited Spain in November 2018. Its purpose is to provide a platform for business exchanges and cooperation. Since its establishment six years ago, companies from both sides have used this platform to carry out close cooperation in automobile and car parts manufacturing, transportation, energy, agricultural and food products, finance and other fields.

Recently, Prime Minister Sanchez led a business delegation to China and addressed the second meeting of the China-Spain Business Advisory Council, together with Minister Wang Wentao. More than 60 members of the Council attended the meeting. Representatives of Chinese and Spanish enterprises expressed interest in reinforcing traditional cooperation, while unlocking the potential of cooperation in emerging industries, such as clean energy, cross-border e-commerce, big data and low-altitude economy, and jointly explore third markets.

Going forward, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to work with relevant departments in Spain to make sure that the China-Spain Business Advisory Council can provide opportunities for more frequent and pragmatic dialogues and exchanges between enterprises of the two countries, and contribute to deeper economic and trade cooperation with tangible outcomes. Thank you.

CNBC: The Europe Chamber of Commerce in China published an annual report on Wednesday, saying that foreign companies in China are at a critical juncture and that the Chinese government needs to redouble efforts to implement the 24 policies introduced last year. In the face of declining profits, they will have to reduce their investments in China. What is the Ministry of Commerce's comment on this?

He Yongqian: As you mentioned, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China issued the European Business in China Position Paper 2024/2025 yesterday, putting forward a range of concerns and suggestions. I want to say that the current operation of foreign-funded enterprises in China is relatively sound. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the total profits of foreign-funded industrial enterprises above the designated size increased by 9.9 percent in the first seven months of this year. From January to July, nearly 32,000 new foreign-funded enterprises were established in China, up 11.4 percent year on year, sustaining the trend of rapid growth in 2023. These figures indicate that foreign investors are still optimistic about long-term investment prospect in China.

In August last year, the State Council of China issued the Opinions on Improving the Environment for Foreign Investment and Enhancing Efforts to Attract Foreign Investment, known as the 24 policies you mentioned. Since the release of this document, all departments and local governments have worked fast to implement it according to their respective responsibilities. The Ministry of Commerce has carried out regular evaluations to ensure the policies are effectively implemented. By the end of July this year, 27 of the 59 measures under the 24 policies had been completed, including the issuance of the Regulations on Promoting and Regulating the Cross-border Flow of Data, running the pilot program for expanding opening-up of value-added telecommunications services, establishing the coordination mechanism for intellectual property protection in volume-based procurement of pharmaceutical products, and improving visa and exit and entry policies.

Recently, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Health Commission and the National Medical and Pharmaceutical Administration jointly issued a notice on operating pilot programs for expanding opening-up of the healthcare sector, relaxing restrictions on foreign investment in biotechnology and hospitals. These measures are concrete actions taken by the Chinese government to expand high-level opening-up and improve the business environment. We believe they will bring new opportunities for more European companies to invest and operate in China. Thank you.

Economic Daily: FOCAC Beijing Summit was successfully held last week. The ten partner initiatives for joining hands to advance modernization for China and Africa that President Xi Jinping announced at the opening ceremony of the summit were warmly welcomed by African countries. Among them, zero tariff treatment for 100 percent of tariff lines from the least developed countries that have established diplomatic ties with China and the signing of the Framework Agreement of China-Africa Economic Partnership for Shared Development have garnered wide attention. Could you give us more details on the two important measures? What is China's consideration in implementing the ten partnership initiatives?

He Yongqian: MOFCOM will earnestly follow through with the key messages of President Xi Jinping’s important speech, and work with related departments to implement the ten partnership initiatives. We will conduct close communication and cooperation with African countries and strive for early harvests, so that trade and economic cooperation outcomes can benefit businesses and people of China and African at an early date. Providing zero-tariff treatment for 100% of tariff lines from the least developed countries that have established diplomatic relations with China is a concrete action to implement the guiding principles of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, which committed to taking the initiative to open up further and unilaterally open doors to the least developed countries. This treatment is also an important measure to steadily expand market access. China is the first developing country and leading economy in the world to grant zero-tariff treatment to 100% of the tariff lines of the least developed countries. This initiative will play a positive role in helping the LDCs increase exports to China and share the opportunities of China's enormous market. It will also strengthen solidarity and cooperation in the Global South and promote inclusive economic globalization.

The Framework Agreement of China-Africa Economic Partnership for Shared Development was warmly welcomed by African partners during the summit. To date, China has signed framework agreements with 22 African countries. China and Africa believe that the Framework Agreement is a groundbreaking cooperation measure that will facilitate more flexible and pragmatic trade and investment liberalization and facilitation arrangements between China and African countries, provide long-term, stable and predictable institutional guarantee for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, create tremendous opportunities for African products to enter the Chinese market, and provide robust support for Africa's industrialization, agricultural modernization, and sustainable economic development. Thank you.

Reuters: China launched an anti-dumping investigation into imports of rapeseed from Canada on Monday. Analysts pointed out that unlike dealing with European imports, the investigation was launched without any domestic industry filing a complaint. Could you please explain the difference between treating European and Canadian products? What are the concerns behind it?

He Yongqian: The Chinese side launches trade remedy investigations fairly and reasonably based on objective facts and according to the WTO rules. According to the WTO rules, anti-dumping probes could be launched not only when an application is made from within the industry but also when a relevant authority initiates a probe ex officio.

Relevant evidence shows that Canada has engaged in the dumping of its rapeseed exports to China, causing substantial damage to China’s domestic industry. Due to the low centralization level of China’s rapeseed industry and the wide involvement of growers, it is difficult for the industry to file applications. For this reason, Chinese authorities initiate investigations independently in accordance with domestic laws and the WTO rules. We would conduct the investigation and make a ruling in an impartial, fair and transparent manner. Thank you.