Tokyo Tower is lit up in red to celebrate the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, in Tokyo, Japan, Jan. 21, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

China's Ministry of Commerce has begun to solicit views from Chinese businesses, research institutions and associations that deal with Japan, ahead of a trade policy review by the WTO in early March.

In order to further understand the barriers and discriminatory treatment that Chinese firms have encountered as well as concerns on Japan's trade policy, the commerce ministry welcomes opinions from all relevant parties. Feedbacks need to be sent back by February 23, the ministry said on its website on Tuesday.

The 15th round of Japan's trade policy review in Geneva is slated to take place from March 1 to 3.

Monitoring of trade policies is an important procedure by the WTO, at the center of which is the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM). All WTO members are routinely reviewed, with the frequency of each member's review varying in accordance with the share in global trade, according to WTO's website.

During the 14th round of Japan's trade policy review in 2020, the then Chinese Ambassador to the WTO proposed concerns regarding Japan's trade policies including Japan's restrictions on foreign investment in high-tech information sector, such as additional approval requirement on the ground of national security and blunt discrimination against certain Chinese firms.

"Japan's continued practice of export restrictions, the inclusion of Chinese companies and research institutions in its End User List subject to export control have inhibited trade ties between two countries, which also raise questions of Japan's compliance with WTO rules," Zhang said.

Three years on, Japan's current trade policy proves little progress, experts said. To make it worse, the Japanese government's recent moves by collaborating with the US government in cracking down on Chinese companies have weighed on bilateral ties.

"Japan is quite a self-contradictory country when looking to China," Chen Zilei, director of the Research Center for Japanese Economics at the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"Its dependence on China, from a trade perspective, is actually on the rise. For the Japanese market, it has growing demand for Chinese firms which can bring technologies and expertise. However, in reality, the country has erected many barriers for Chinese players to enter easily, which is purely protectionism," Chen said.

Tokyo has reportedly planned to restrict export of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China this spring, in tandem with the Biden administration to contain China's tech rise.

The bilateral trade value of China and Japan came behind that of China and South Korea in 2022, falling short of expectations.

China-Japan trade value came in at $357.4 billion last year, down 3.7 percent on a yearly basis, while China-South Korea's reading rose 0.1 percent year-on-year to $362.2 billion, Chinese customs data showed.

"We can see that Japan's trading position for China is downsizing," Chen said, adding that Japanese companies, influenced by Tokyo's foreign policy, tend to be more conservative doing business in China.

"They should be forward-looking instead of short-sighted," he added, pointing to the vast market opportunity in the world's second largest economy.

Global Times