June 7, 2002	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25,1423

BEIJING, June 6: China is beefing up anti-dumping trade measures after already increasing import taxes on 5.2 billion dollars of goods allegedly dumped on its markets in the past five years, state press said Thursday.

Since late 1997, China has carried out 19 anti-dumping investigations, resulting in six final judgments on products ranging from chemicals, chemical fibre, steel, paper-making, and light industries, Wang Shichun, a trade ministry official was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.

In the six cases, four to 78 per cent taxes were levied on the goods, Wang said at the first national conference on fair international trade since China joined the World Trade Organization in December.

Wang, head of the fair trade bureau at the trade ministry, said seven of the 19 cases have been handled since Beijing signed its WTO accession protocol last November.—AFP