The comments from the EUCCC for sure made waves. Premier Wen Jiabao tried to convince Ms. Merkel all is well over here (see earlier entry).
Now on 26 June 2009 People’s Daily Online reported:
“Ministries: China to treat domestic, foreign products equally:
Regarding China’s efforts on securing fair implementation of the bidding system in government procurement projects as trade protectionism is a misunderstanding. Actually products made by foreign-funded enterprises in China are treated as China made products. China will continue to keep its commitments on its opening-up policy and will never take any discriminative measures against foreign companies or products.
Those remarks were made by Yao Jian, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, and Li Pumin, spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission, in their joint statement on June 26.”
and on 2 July China Daily reported:
“On June 4, nine Chinese ministries jointly clarified their stance on the issue, saying there was no harm in buying domestic products, as the wind power project is part of government procurement, and not part of the 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package.” (note: this is wrong – not a case of government procurement, read the Law!)
“Last Friday, the Ministry of Commerce said on its website that China sticks to the principle of treating foreign and domestic products on equal terms when it comes to stimulus-financed projects, and foreign enterprises have already benefited from the package.
All nice promises but it remains to be seen if except for Mofcom anybody else will actually follow the instructions. Past experience shows – NO. But let’s hope that this time, words will be followed by action.
Otherwise, attracting more foreigners to set up factories here will be more difficult. Initial comments from Mofcom were kinda real dumb:
“Foreign factories here in China should know there are other markets than China”. Oops. So, you mean, we should close our factories in Europe, put them here to export to the EU and other markets and have little access to the Chinese market?. Seems Mofcom understood (?) the faux-pas and tiptoed back. At least in words.
As with the pathetic Green Dam stuff, wait and see.
The proof is in the pudding.
Optimism is not yet guaranteed.