China's government and companies should learn to apply the World Trade Organization dispute settlement mechanism in a "rational" and "practical" manner to protect interests of companies and deal with complaints, said a Chinese government official Sunday.

Lu Xiankun, China's counselor to the WTO, said at a conference in Shanghai that protectionism and trade friction was on the rise globally because of the economic slowdown.

Much of it was targeted at China, which would adversely affect Chinese exporters.

He said the world trade environment proved tougher for Chinese exporters, with more possibilities for China to file suits. Meanwhile, China could be expected to face more complaints as some of its stimulus measures could cause disputes with foreign governments or industries.

As the end of May, China had filed four dispute settlement cases to the WTO and had been the target of 14 cases since its entry to the WTO in 2001, Lu said.

Cases involving China concerned subsidies, export limits, market access, safeguard measures, anti-dumping and countervailing measures, intellectual property and services, Lu said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2009)