The year of 2005 witnessed a rapid development of China's foreign trade. According to the Chinese Customs, China's foreign trade volume reached US$1422.12 billion in 2005, up by 23.2 percent, among which China's export was US$762.0 billion, up by 28.4 percent, while China's import was US$660.12 billion, up by 17.6 percent. The trade surplus in 2005 was US$101.88 billion, up by 217.4 percent. The trade volume of China was the third largest in the world.

As Chinese companies being more exposed to the international competition, China's overseas investment increases remarkably. In 2005, Chinese non- financial overseas investment reached US$6.92 billion, up by 25.8 percent. By the end of 2005, the accumulated overseas direct investment of China was about US$43.72 billion. The volume of completed labour service cooperation contracts was US$4.8 billion in 2005, up by 27.5 percent, and that of the newly signed labour service cooperation contracts was US$4.25 billion, up by 21.2 percent; Approximately 274,000 Chinese laborer and professionals were expatiated abroad in other countries or territories, representing an increase of 26,000 people.

With the fast development of Chinese foreign trade and investment, some trading partners set all kinds of barriers to trade and investment frequently to protect their domestic industry and home market. According to Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), a total of 18 countries and regions initiated 63 anti-dumping, countervailing, safeguard and product-specific safeguard investigations against Chinese products. The total value related to these cases is US$2.1 billion; Seven investigations were initiated pursuant to Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C. §1337, against Chinese products, the total value related to these cases is US$1.2 billion; Two products were subject to anti- trust investigations, the total value related to these cases is US$170 million. In addition the role of technical barriers to trade, barriers to IPRs of China's trading partners became more important in these partners' trade policy against China.

With China's expanding share in the global market, for a quite long period in the future, Chinese companies will be confronted with an increasingly challenging international trade and investment environment.

The Report is complied in the course of enabling Chinese enterprises and relevant organizations to have better knowledge on the trade and investment regimes, and practices of China's main trading partners in the field of trade in goods and services as well as foreign investment, to obtain a full-scaled understanding of competition on global market, and thus to participate in international competition on equal footing. It also aims at maintaining an equal, fair and reasonable international trade and investment environment according to the WTO rules, and expressing the concerns of the Chinese government and industries over the external environment for trade and investment. In accordance with relevant provisions of the Foreign Trade Law and the Regulation on the Administration of the Import and Export of Goods, MOFCOM is now publishing the Foreign Market Access Report: 2006. hereinafter referred to as "the Report"

I. Coverage of the Report

Based upon information provided by Chinese enterprises and government agencies, while taking into account of trade volumes between China and its global trading partners in 2005 provided by the Chinese Customs, the Report covers 25 trading partners of China, including, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Russia, the European Union, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. China's export to these trading partners accounted for about 71.2 percent of China's total export in 2005.