【财经看点】商务部回应美对华光伏产品双反初裁:势必使纠纷再升

U.S. abuses trade remedy measures: MOC China's Ministry of Commerce says that the preliminary ruling by the United States on imported photovoltaic products from China is an abuse of trade remedy measures. The U.S. Department of Commerce set preliminary subsidy rates on Chinese PV products on Tuesday, signaling that it may impose punitive duties on those products. The U.S. has once again started anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on Chinese PV products, having previously tried to levy high duties on those products in November 2012. China's commerce ministry says the "U.S actions will certainly worsen the Sino-U.S. dispute in the photo-voltaic trade." HK Retail sales plunge 9.8 pc New data shows that Hong Kong retail sales have plunged almost 10 percent - the biggest drop since February 2009. The government attributes the drop to a decline in sales of high-value goods including jewelry and watches. It says that the decline - the third in as many months - might reflect a cutback in visitor spending after a prolonged period of brisk growth. Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying says he hopes the new data would stimulate further discussion on whether Hong Kong should act to reduce the number of mainlanders visiting the SAR. "The opinions (we have gathered over last week) are very useful, we will discuss it within the SAR government and with relevant ministries on the mainland. If the central government carries out adjustment of the number of mainland visitors to the SAR, these opinions are also very useful." Leung earlier floated the figure of a 20 percent cut in visitors as an option in the face of criticism from some Hongkongers about the number of mainlanders flooding across the border. Retailers fear the situation will worsen if such an option is adopted. Hong Kong's retail sales in March and February both dropped by 1.5 percent and 2.2 percent year-on-year respectively. Russia and China to create joint rating agency Anchor: Russia and China have reached an agreement to create a joint credit rating agency. Russia's finance minister says that the new rating agency will be modelled on existing agencies. He also says the agency will "be apolitical." Currently three western agencies - Standard & Poor's, Moody's, and Fitch dominate the ratings market. For more on this, CRI's Shane Bigham spoke earlier with Benjamin Cavendar, associate principal at China Market Research in Shanghai. … Back Anchor: That was Benjamin Cavender, Associate principal at China Market Research in Shanghai. China becomes world's biggest online market The Ministry of Commerce says China's e-commerce market has become the world's largest. The Ministry says online shopping transactions surpassed 1.85 trillion yuan, or 300 billion US dollars, last year. According to the Ministry, China had an estimated 300 million online shoppers last year, and online shopping transactions accounted for nearly 8 percent of the country's total retail market. WeChat opens door to small merchants Chinese tech giant Tencent is pushing further into mobile e-commerce by lowering the threshold to set up stores using its popular mobile messaging application WeChat. The move could represent a threat to the country's leading online retailer, Alibaba Group. Shenzhen-based Tencent, a shareholder of online shopping website JD.com, has rolled out a shopping channel on WeChat, a messaging app that has more than 500 million users in China. It says it will allow small and medium-sized merchants to open stores using WeChat. The announcement marks Tencent's latest move into mobile e-commerce. WeChat was launched in 2011. It had amassed nearly 400 million monthly active users by the first quarter of this year, a surge of approximately 90 percent year-on-year.