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Chinese eyewear suppliers have achieved an overwhelming victory in countering an anti-dumping lawsuit in Argentina, according to Xinhua's source with the Wenzhou Eyewear Trade Association.

Argentina lodged an anti-dumping investigation on sunglasses, frames and reading glasses exported from China on January 6, 2004, which has become China's third trade barrier case after the country's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

China's eyewear exports to Argentina, made by 56 Chinese companies, were worth 1.07 million US dollars from January to November in 2003. Twenty-seven exporters from Wenzhou City of east China's Zhejiang Province, whose exports accounted for 63.6 percent of the country's total eyewear exports to Argentina, dared to take up the appeal last year.

Wenzhou exporters defended themselves on grounds that the eyewear industry in China is market-oriented without any government intervention or subsidy. Meanwhile, the export does not form any threat to the market since Argentina has a blank in the production of reading glasses.

After going through a complicated process of evidence collection with the help of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and many other government organizations, the Wenzhou Eyewear Trade Association and the exporters made convincing case in the suit. The Argentine government finally lifted the sanction on Chinese eyewear exports in the middle of July.

Wenzhou is China's biggest eyewear production base. The industry in the city yields 6 billion yuan (750 million US dollars) in annual revenue, which accounts for 40 percent of the country's total. The city produces 40 percent of the world's sunglasses.

Chinese eyewear companies face one of the toughest trade barriers in exports. The sector encountered China's first trade barrier case against Turkey, three days after the country's WTO entry in December 2001. In 2003, it won a counter anti-dumping case in India.