BEIJING FAIR OPENS: Visitors participate in the China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services, which was held from May 28 to June 1. Over 1,900 domestic and foreign companies attended the event (LUO XIAOGUANG)

Surging Insurance

The gross revenue of China's social insurance funds increased 20.2 percent year on year to 2.89 trillion yuan ($467 billion) in 2012, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on May 27.

The gross expenditure of social insurance funds increased 22.9 percent from 2011 to reach 2.22 trillion yuan ($362.3 billion), said the ministry.

China's social insurance funds contain five parts, the basic endowment insurance for senior citizens, basic medical insurance, unemployment insurance, work-related injury insurance and maternity insurance.

By the end of last year, a total of 304.27 million working people, retirees and beneficiaries were covered by the basic endowment insurance for senior citizens, an increase of 20.36 million from a year earlier, said the ministry. Among them, 45.43 million were rural migrant workers, an increase of 4.03 million from 2011.

Solar Action Plan

China will take steps to defend its national interest if the EU were to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar panels and investigate wireless communications networks, said Zhong Shan, Chief International Trade Representative of China, on May 27 in Brussels.

Zhong led a government delegation to the EU headquarters to meet EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and Jean Luc Demarty, Director General for Trade.

Zhong said the EU's anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigation into Chinese solar panels and the looming action on wireless telecommunications networks would hurt the Chinese industries and workers concerned, and seriously sour the climate for bilateral trade and economic engagement.

Such practices of trade protectionism are not acceptable to China, and the amplification and escalation of trade disputes would serve neither party well, he said.

The European Alliance for Affordable Solar Energy estimates that more than 200,000 jobs will be lost as a direct consequence of the European Commission's punitive plans.

By the end of 2013, EU member states will vote to decide on the imposition of trade penalties.

Anti-Dumping Issue

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced on May 27 that it will levy provisional anti-dumping duties on pyridine imported from India and Japan.

After a preliminary investigation that began in September last year, the MOFCOM determined that Indian producers had sold pyridine in China at dumping margins ranging from 24.6 percent to 57.4 percent, and Japanese producers sold the product at a 47.9-percent dumping margin.

Starting from May 28, Chinese entities importing pyridine from the two countries will be required to pay deposits with Chinese customs calculated according to the dumping margins, said the MOFCOM.

Pyridine is an organic compound used as an important raw material and solvent in the production of pesticides, drugs, animal feed, food additives and other chemicals.