China's policy on domestic innovation will no longer be a barrier for foreign companies vying for orders of China's government procurement projects, according to a European Commission delegation, which visited Beijing on Monday and Tuesday.

This move marks "real progress" in the further opening of China's public procurement market, said Karel De Gucht, European Trade Commissioner.

Statistics show that the market was valued at more than 700 billion yuan in 2009.

But the negotiations on China's accession into the WTO Government Procurement Agreement are yet to be concluded. China has repeatedly expressed its hope that developed countries lower their threshold in the negotiations.

The policy of linking public procurement orders to the origin of the intellectual property rights is designed to encourage China's own innovation. However, the policy has been criticized as a discrimination against foreign products, particularly those from European Union and the United States, in bidding for China's public procurement projects.

The removal of the link is connected with China's efforts to boost its imports in the 12th Five-Year Plan. China expects more imports to balance its trade and international payments. More imports of hi-tech products are particularly welcome to upgrade China's industrial competition and facilitate the country's economic restructuring, which are on the top agenda of the national strategy for the next five years.

"We want to import more energy-saving and environmental protection products," said Yao Jian, spokesperson of China's Ministry of Commerce two weeks ago.

Both the European Union and the United States have agreed to review their restrictions on hi-tech exports. However, there is still no timetable about when the European Union would remove its arms embargo on China, which has been a barrier for the European Union's hi-tech exports to China for more than 20 years.

China has a huge trade surplus with the European Union and the United States, which are China's top two trading partners.
                                                                                                 Source:people.com.cn