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(chinadaily.com.cn/Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-04 15:10

The United States and the European Union filed a case against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday, demanding that China loosen restraints on foreign companies in terms of providing financial information services.

The US and the EU said they were challenging Chinese rules announced 18 months ago that foreign suppliers including Reuters Group, Dow Jones and Bloomberg distribute their data and news reports to customers in China through Xinhua News Agency.

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"Competitive and open financial services information markets are the lifeblood of a strong financial sector, but China's rules have tipped the balance against foreign companies," said EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in a statement.  

"I trust the EU and China will be able to resolve this issue amicably and to mutual benefit."

Susan C. Schwab, the United States trade envoy addressed that the current restriction placed "US and other foreign suppliers at a serious competitive disadvantage" and the US has repeatedly raised the issue to China but it has not been resolved yet.

In response, China said it "respects the choices" of other WTO members and will follow WTO rules in settle disputes with other members, the Commerce Ministry said in a brief statement on its website.

According to WTO rule, the requests of EU and US trigger a 60-day consultation period. If the dispute is failed to be resolved before the deadline, Washington and Brussels could ask the WTO to launch a formal investigation.

The financial information provided by those companies like Reuters Group, Dow Jones and Bloomberg includes stock prices, currency rates etc. The lucrative financial information market in China exceeded US$100 million in 2006.

To compete with foreign financial information providers, Xinhua News Agency launched its own service dubbed "Xinhua 08" last year. The provided information includes data on currency, gold and future markets and 55 industries like metal, energy and real estate.

China enjoys a remarkable trade surplus with both EU and the United States and this has aroused great concerns from Brussels and Washington.

Last year, the Bush administration decided to take a more confrontational approach towards China on trade issues to meet the demands of the US Congress.

The United States has more frequently gone to the WTO to solve its trade disputes with China.

For instance, last April, the United States filed two WTO cases against China over copyright piracy and restrictions on the sale of US books, music, videos and movies.

It is believed that the current case will also bring negative influence to the settlement of trade disputes between US, EU and China.