European Union (EU) trade commissioner Peter Mandelson promised to make active efforts to make sure qualified Chinese shoemakers could acquire market-economy treatment during EU's final anti-dumping investigation.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson speaks during the closing ceremony of a seminar on trademark and copyright protection in Beijing June 7, 2006. [Reuters]

Mandelson was said to have made this statement after China's Minister of Bo Xilai expressed his dissatisfaction toward the preliminary judgement of EU on the exports of China-made shoes during a closed-door discussion on Wednesday, sources with the ministry's information office told Xinhua.

Bo said that EU had hastily overruled the market economy status of all relevant Chinese shoe-making companies and imposed uniform provisional anti-dumping duties on the whole industry of China.

"It's not only against the anti-dumping protocol of the World Trade Organization but also against the laws of European Union. China requires EU to make a fair and just final judgement to the Chinese shoe-making firms involved," Bo said.

Sources with the Ministry of Commerce said that Mandelson had promised to give serious consideration of China's request and make active efforts to make sure qualified Chinese shoe-making companies acquire their deserved market-economy treatment.

Both sides have made positive comments of the Sino-EU trade relations and agreed to make concerted efforts to bring it to a higher level.

Bo introduced the latest development of China in the protection of intellectual property rights, especially in the retail sector and judicial supervision. He said that the Ministry was founding IPR complaint centers across the country.

"China would like to strengthen its cooperation with EU and learn from EU's experiences in IPR protection," he said.

The two also touched on the Doha Development Agenda. Bo called on EU to take a more flexible stance on the issue of agriculture. "As a developing country, China has been working hard to push forward the negotiation on Doha Development Agenda. European Union should understand and support China's concern of the roles that developing countries and new members could play," he said.

In response, Mandelson said that EU would like to strengthen its cooperation with China in the future discussions.

The two also exchanged views on the revision of China-EU trade and economic cooperation agreement, the market economy status of China and China's policy on the imports of automobile parts and accessories.

Mandelson is here for a five-day visit of China at the invitation of Bo Xilai.