The Ministry of Commerce urged members of the World Trade Organization to treat China's market economy status fairly under WTO rules and give up deliberate antidumping activities against Chinese goods.

Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang said China's steel industry and its exports have no direct connection with the country's market economy status, and suggested certain countries stop actions to charge more tariffs on Chinese products under the excuse of surrogate country.

China agreed that other WTO members could regard it as a "non-market economy" for 15 years from Dec 11, 2001, as a condition of joining the WTO in 2001.

As the deadline of Dec 11, 2016, draws near, there have been disputes on whether China would be automatically recognized by other WTO members, based on different understandings of China's accession agreement.