Technical trade barriers cost China
exporters US$57.432 bln in 2009

国外技术贸易壁垒致中国损失574．32亿美元

A survey conducted by China's top quality watchdog finds that technical trade barriers from overseas cost Chinese exporters US$57.432 billion in 2009.

A ccording to the survey result,conducted by China's Genenral Administration of Quality Supervision,Inspection,and Quarantine，34.3%of China's exporters were affected by foreign technical trade barriers by different degrees,causing direct losses in export of US$57.432 billion in 2009,an increase of US$6.89 billion over the previous year,accounting for 4.78%of the export in the same period,up 1.24 percentage points,and increasing costs of companies by US$24.625 billion,rising US$553 million.

The top five countries and regions have affected the most on China's exporters were the United States,EU,Russia,Japan and Australia to take up 34.10%,31.18%,16.95%,5.01%and 2.85%of the total direct losses respectively.

The survey further indicated that the top five industries affected most were machinery and electronics，toys and furniture， wood， paper and nonmetallic products，agricultural produce and foods,and chemicals and metals，to account for 38.81%，22.23%，13.38%，10.51%and 6.02%of the total direct losses respectively.

Technical trade barriers from main trade partners for producer goods mainly involved certification,technical standards and requirements，caps on poisonous harmful substances contained in products， tagging and mark，and packaging and materials，while those for farm produce mainly involved limit requirements on residue of pesticides and heavy metals， food additives， sanitation，processing factory and warehouse registration.

S i nce February 2010,the General Administration of Quality Supervision,Inspection,and Quarantine has organized questionnaire survey among big exporting enterprises in china for the impacts from foreign technical trade barriers in 2009.The surveyed export enterprises covered seven major sectors,are located in 31 provinces,autonomous regions and municipalities,and involved 2,616 export enterprises.It received 2,566 questonnaire papers,with the recovery rate standing at 98.09%.