MAIDEN JOURNEY: On February 6, the Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed train G2003 moves out of Zhengzhou Railway Station in central China's Henan Province on its first trip to Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province (ZHU XIANG)

Trade Frictions

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on February 5 it would impose initial anti-dumping measures on chicken products imported from the United States.

A MOFCOM statement on its website said investigations showed the U.S. exporters had dumped chicken products into the Chinese market, which damaged the domestic industry to a large extent.

The preliminary ruling required domestic importers to place deposits at Chinese customs offices starting from February 13. It also said the dumping margins for producers who responded to the anti-dumping investigations ranged from 43.1 percent to 80.5 percent, while those who failed to respond to investigations were 105.4 percent.

Shortly after the ruling was issued, the United States slapped preliminary anti-dumping duties ranging up to 231.4 percent on gift box and narrow woven ribbons from China, alleging the Chinese products were unfairly priced.

Subsidizing Farmers

The Ministry of Finance announced on February 4 it had earmarked 86.7 billion yuan ($12.7 billion) of subsidies for grain-growing farmers across the country.

The subsidy will be used to offset the seed, pesticide and chemical fertilizer cost of farmers in the upcoming spring farming season, said the ministry in a statement on its website.

China vowed to put more investment, subsidies, fiscal and policy support into rural areas this year to better coordinate urban and rural development, as stated in the first Central Government document this year.

Soaring Auto Sales

SAIC Motor Corp. Ltd., the listed company of domestic auto giant Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., announced its car sales grew 89.8 percent in January compared with the same month in 2009, reaching 307,384 units.

Shanghai GM, SAIC's joint venture with General Motors, sold 68,186 vehicles in January, up 67.8 percent. Shanghai Volkswagen, another subsidiary of SAIC, sold 90,202 vehicles in January, up 150.1 percent.

The majority of domestic automakers secured sound growth in January. Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. sold 73,433 vehicles in January, growing 157 percent year on year—the best sales record.

Coal Deal Inked

Australian mining giant Resourcehouse recently secured the country's largest coal export deal with China.

Resourcehouse Chairman Clive Palmer said the company reached a 20-year agreement worth $60 billion with one of China's largest power companies, China Power International Development. "This is Australia's largest single, non-syndicated, finance deal and the interest from China highlights the strength of the project and the benefits for Queensland and Australia in developing a new world-class coal region such as the Galilee Basin," said Palmer, quoted by AFP.

The project opened a massive new coal supply for energy-hungry China. Demand from China to a large extent underpinned the decade-long Australian economic growth.

Free Trade Area

China and Switzerland kicked off their first study meeting on the feasibility of a Free Trade Area (FTA) in Beijing on February 4, said MOFCOM in a statement on its website. No specific timetable was given in terms of when the FTA will be set up.

Bilateral trade between China and Switzerland reached $11.3 billion in 2008. In 2009, the trade volume dropped slightly in the wake of the global economic downturn, but the decrease was small.

Switzerland is China's ninth largest trade partner in Europe, and China is Switzerland's fourth largest global trade partner.