The Chinese Ministry of Commerce held a public hearing on the anti-dumping investigation of a Japanese and ROK chemical Monday afternoon.

The chemical under investigation is pure and polymeric MDI (di-isocyanate), a raw chemical widely used in national defense and chemical, medicine and electronic industries.

On June 20, 2002, the Wanhua Polyurethane Co., Ltd. in Yantai City of east China's Shandong Province, the sole producer of MDI series products in China, asked the then Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (now the Ministry of Commerce) to investigate into the dumping of imported MDI originated in Japan and the Republic of Korea.

The ministry began to investigate the case on Sept. 20, 2002.

Both sides of the case stated their views on whether the industry in China was injured and the cause and effect between dumping and injury, and provided related written materials. Representatives of the Japanese and ROK embassies in China also stated the stances of their governments.

Wang Qinhua, chief of the ministry's Investigation Bureau of Industry Injury, said the ministry will, on the basis of previous investigations, fully consider the views of both sides and give a fair ruling according to related domestic laws and rules of the World Trade Organization.

The companies under investigation are Japan's Mitsui Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd., Japanese Poly-urethane Industry Co., Ltd. and Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., and Basf Korea Ltd. and the Kumho Mitsui Chemical Industries of the Republic of Korea.

The Wanhua Polyurethane Co., Ltd. is also the world's sixth company to enjoy the intellectual property rights to MDI technology.

（Xinhua News Agency September 23, 2003）