China's foreign trade will face complicated and severe times in 2010 as international protectionism against Chinese products enhances as time passes by, said Zhou Xiaoyan, director of the fair trade bureau under the Ministry of Commerce, on December 21.

In a context of rising global protectionism, the number of the trade friction cases China faced this year has reached record numbers. By the end of November, 19 countries and regions had launched 103 trade remedy investigations against Chinese products that involved 67 antidumping and 13 countervailing cases.

Ms. Zhou commented that there are increasing uncertainties in international trade with governments around the world striving to protect domestic industries and competing for global markets at the same time.