BEIJING - China is "ready" to deal with increasing pressure from developed nations to loosen export restrictions on rare earths after the failure of an appeal against a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling, a Ministry of Commerce official said on Tuesday.

"We are ready for it," Yu Fang, deputy director of the department of treaty and law under the ministry, told China Daily.

Endorsing a previous finding, the WTO's appellate body declared on Monday that export limitations by China on nine raw materials, including zinc, coke and magnesium, through quotas and tariffs broke WTO rules.

It is "regretful" that the ruling has been upheld, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

But "the result is better than we expected as the WTO still supports many of our arguments", Yu said.

Zhou Shijian, a senior expert with Tsinghua University, echoed this view.

"It only requested that China make some technical changes while the ruling actually rejected the majority of their (US and EU) appeals."

The US, EU and Mexico said in 2009 that China's export restrictions on raw materials discriminated against foreign manufacturers and gave an unfair advantage to Chinese producers.

A dispute settlement panel ruled in July that export duties and quotas on raw materials contradicted China's WTO commitments. China later lodged an appeal to the WTO appellate body.

Although rare earths, crucial ingredients in many high-tech products, were not part of Monday's ruling, a number of Washington lawmakers urged the US to use the decision to launch a case to force Beijing to lift rare earth export restrictions. 

"The decision of the appellate body is a huge victory for the US," Michael Silver, chief executive of American Elements, a US-based rare earths processor, was quoted as saying by Reuters. "It confirms the existence of the two-tiered price structure that has caused so much concern." 

Responding to the WTO ruling, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said that "China now must comply by removing these export restrictions swiftly and furthermore I expect China to bring its overall export regime - including for rare earths - in line with WTO rules".

The ruling is "a tremendous victory for the US - particularly its manufacturers and workers", US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement.

Yu expressed her concern that developed nations will now demand that China compromises on rare earth exports.

"They will probably request that China loosen export restrictions on rare earth in the coming months" and even present their case to the WTO, she said.

"But we don't fear this because we are fully prepared."

China is the largest producer of rare earths and controls 95 percent of global supplies. Rare earths are a group of 17 elements used in industries like hybrid cars. The government began to control output in recent years, citing resource depletion and environmental degradation.

The US and the EU have repeatedly asked China to loosen the restrictions on rare earth exports.

Export restrictions will now come under fire, Zhou said. 

"They were flying a balloon with the case. They will be more aggressive after the ruling," Zhou said.

US President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address last month that the US was setting up an enforcement unit to crack down on unfair trade practices.

After the rare earth export quota decreased slightly to 30,184 tons last year, the government said that the quota for this year will remain unchanged to maintain stability of supply.

The Ministry of Commerce statement reiterated that China has tightened administration of energy-consuming and polluting resources in recent years.

"The WTO should not only uphold free trade but also allow members to take necessary steps to protect the environment and natural resources," the statement said.

China will evaluate the WTO ruling and continue to enhance scientific administration of resource products based on WTO rules to realize sustainable development, it said. 

"The raw material ruling will not come into effect until the end of this month, and China will decide how to implement the ruling then," Yu said.

BEIJING - China will slow approvals of nuclear projects after the resumption, which is expected to take place this year, according to an industry expert from a national energy think tank. 

"China will be cautious in pursuing nuclear power and is likely to approve only three or four projects each year, compared with the boom in new projects during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2005-2010)," said Xiao Xinjian, a nuclear industry expert at the national Energy Research Institute, affiliated with the National Development and Reform Commission. 

The country had been accelerating its nuclear development since 2008, with 14 reactors approved in 2008 and six in 2009. 

Following the nuclear leak in Japan in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Chinese government announced a suspension of approvals for nuclear power stations. It also conducted rigorous safety checks at all nuclear projects, including those under construction. No new project was approved or started last year. 

"Projects that had already received approval before the suspension will likely start construction in the second half of this year," according to Xiao. 

China had six new projects approved before the Japanese nuclear crisis. Construction was suspended because of safety concerns. 

The country will see a boom in the construction of nuclear projects between 2013 and 2015, according to Xiao's estimates. 

The State Council, China's cabinet, is currently reviewing the plans outlining the country's nuclear targets and routes. 

The nation is likely to introduce third-generation (3G) nuclear technology in all future plants because of more stringent safety standards, according to a source close to the matter. 

It is possible that projects using advanced second-generation technology and starting preliminary work may switch to 3G if the government made such a move mandatory, according to Xiao. 

China introduced the AP 1000 3G nuclear technology in 2007 through its nuclear technology arm, State Nuclear Power Technology Corp (SNPTC). 

The first AP 1000 reactor will become operational in 2013, as scheduled, despite delays caused by redesigns by the US technology developer Westinghouse Electric Co, according to SNPTC. 

"Though we are confident about the schedule, the project (first unit) remains a big challenge," a senior official of the company told China Daily. 

China is building the world's first AP 1000 reactor. Construction of the first unit in Zhejiang province began in 2009 but slowed after the nuclear crisis in Japan. 

The indigenous rate (that is, using components made in China) of the first four reactors using the AP1000 technology is 55 percent on average. 

"It is hard to achieve 100 percent localization over a short period," the source said. 

Meanwhile, China is also developing its first domestic 3G nuclear reactor - the CAP 1400 - which is based on the AP1000 and will boost the unit's generating capacity to 1,400 megawatts (mW) from 1,154 mW. 

Preliminary designs for the technology will be completed by the end of this year. 

BEIJING - The amount of trans fat and other nutritional information will be marked on the labels of prepackaged food, according to the country's first national standard for food nutrition. The labeling will take effect on Jan 1, 2013. 

"It will help standardize the nutrition facts labeling by food producers and facilitate consumers' rights to know and choose, while improving public awareness of food nutrition," said Yang Yuexin, a senior nutritionist with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

The new regulation by the Ministry of Health stipulates that food labels have to include the food's nutrition information, including levels of energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate and sodium. 

Food products without proper labels showing the nutritional information will be banned when the new rule takes effect. 

The new regulation also stipulates that if any hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat is used to produce the food, the level of trans fat will have to be highlighted on the nutrition information label. 

Trans fat is usually produced during food processing when liquid oils are converted into semi-solid fats that help keep food fresh longer. However, the partially hydrogenated oil contains trans fat that can substantially increase the risk of heart disease. 

However, Zhang Jian, a researcher with CDC's National Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety, said that compared to Western diets, the Chinese diet contains a far lower level of trans fat and there is no need to over react. 

BEIJING - Local governments at all levels are expected to face stronger obligations to protect the environment, and polluters will face much heavier fines, according to a draft proposal to amend China's decades-old Environmental Protection Law. 

The environmental and resources protection committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) is currently soliciting advice on the draft proposal, which is expected to be reviewed by the standing committee of the NPC as early as December, said Bie Tao, a senior official from the Ministry of Environmental Protection. 

One highlight of the draft is a proposal to strengthen local governments' legal responsibilities in environmental protection, Bie, deputy director of the policy, law and regulation department, said on Sunday. 

"Although local officials are obliged to meet targets on energy conservation and emission reduction, the legal obligations for local governments are still rather ambiguous," he said. 

Environmental experts say some local governments, in their blind pursuit of economic growth, have become the true culprits of the country's rampant pollution problems. 

"If you look at major pollution accidents in the past several years, it is not difficult to discover that local governments are behind the polluting companies, winking at their misconduct, with some even holding shares in the polluters," said Wang Canfa, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law. 

Meanwhile, polluters who refuse to stop dumping industrial waste will face daily penalties while their polluting activities continue, according to the draft proposal. 

Such a mechanism has proved effective in Western countries as it can result in huge fines. Previously, low maximum fines in China encouraged some enterprises to violate environmental laws. 

Last year, the country's leading gold producer, Zijin Mining Group, was fined 9.56 million yuan ($1.5 million) after a toxic leak killed a large number of fish and caused direct economic losses of 31.9 million yuan. It was the biggest penalty ever imposed on a polluting company in China. 

The draft proposal also pushes for greater transparency on pollution information from both government and enterprises. 

Public interest litigation, which allows individuals, NGOs and government bodies to sue polluters on behalf of the public, will for the first time be endorsed by law if the draft proposal is approved by the legislature. 

Currently, courts rarely accept lawsuits launched against polluting companies by environmental groups on behalf of victims due to legal restrictions. 

First published in 1989, many provisions of the existing Environmental Protection Law no longer adequately address the country's enormous pollution problems created during its rapid industrialization and urbanization, Bie said. 

The revision aims to improve existing mechanisms, such as reviewing the environmental impact for development projects, and to include new administrative and market-oriented policies to prevent pollution, he said. 

"But due to institutional restrictions, the scale of revision is still limited," said Bie, without further elaborating. 

BEIJING -- China will strictly control the consumption of non-renewable energy in the next five years by setting mandatory ceilings for local governments, a senior energy official said here Sunday.

Jiang Bing, director of the development and planning department of the National Energy Administration (NEA), said at a forum that the central government has set separate ceilings for energy consumption at local levels for the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).

But to encourage renewable energy use and energy utilization, the consumption of hydropower, wind power, solar power and energy from comprehensive utilization will be deducted when measuring local energy consumption, Jiang said.

China plans to set up a complete evaluation and coordination mechanism for local energy consumption in the five-year period, so as to better evaluate the performance of local officials and making decisions on new energy projects, he said.

China aims to cap its total energy consumption at four billion tons of coal equivalent by 2015, an annual increase of 4.24 percent in the five years, said Zhang Guobao, former head of the country's National Energy Administration, earlier this year.