China will continue to strengthen cooperation and exchanges with The European Union in the field of competition policy, said Ma Xiuhong, Vice Minister of commerce, on Friday.

Ma said at the EU-China Conference on Competition Policy that China values its cooperation with EU in this respect. She said that the two parts are both trying to provide an environment where big and small firms, state-owned and privately-owned firms could compete on an equal footing and trying to build a unified market.

Since 1978, China has adopted many substantial measures and regulations to help build an unified domestic market and combating anti-competitive behaviors.

China now is working on the Anti-Monopoly Law, acknowledged Ma. The Ministry of Commerce has completed the draft law in 2004 and has submitted it to the State Council Legislative Affairs Office for review.

The conference, held in Beijing at the joint sponsorship of the Ministry of Commerce and the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission.

China and the EU have witnessed rapid development in bilateral economic cooperation and trade. Currently, EU is the largest trade partner of China, and China is the second largest trade partner of the EU. In 2004, the bilateral trade reached 177.28 billion US dollars, up 33.6 percent over the previous year.

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2005)