A total of 57 countries have accepted China's status as a market economy since the moment in April 2004 when New Zealand stood out as the first acceptor, a senior official with the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday.

Addressing a national trade conference, Gao Hucheng, vice minister of commerce, said that the 57 countries include Australia, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Russia.

Twenty one of the 31 countries that launched anti-dumping investigations into China have since recognized China's status as a market economy, said Wang Shichun, director-general of the bureau of trade for imports & exports of MOFCOM, at the conference.

For those countries who have not yet accepted this, Wang said that China has set up a working mechanism with them to deal with outstanding issues.

Wang said that with more and more countries accepting China's status as a market economy, the international environment for China's companies has improved significantly.

In recent years, China has been bothered by various anti-dumping investigations launched by different countries, some of which claimed that China's economy is not market-oriented.

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2006)