China faces battle over 'market economy' status

Granting China 'market economy' status is quite an important issue, as anti-dumping and anti-subsidies laws apply differently to economies. There is one provision in the Chinese WTO Accession Protocol which deals with dumping. It allows other WTO members to use the surrogate country's production costs as a benchmark in deciding if a country is dumping or not. But it also says that the provisions shall expire 15 years after the date of accession.