A seminar sponsored by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Russia was held on Tuesday to discuss the future of nongovernmental trade between China and Russia following the closure of a major Moscow market.

Trade and economic cooperation is an important part of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership of cooperation, said Cai Guiru, head of a temporary Chinese coordination group and chairperson of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Russia.

The shutdown of the Cherkizovsky Market indicated that Chinese merchants can better serve as the bridge of bilateral trade cooperation only if they know Russia's polices and do business in compliance with laws, Cai said.

Wang Chunrong, deputy chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Russia and chief representative of the Russian office of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, called on Chinese traders to transform business models, forge brands of their own and strengthen the sense of rights protection.

Chinese merchants attending the seminar, for their part, said they would draw lessons from the closure of the Cherkizovsky Market and firmly reject the practice of "gray customs clearance."

A coordination group, which involves heads of China's provincial chambers of commerce, was formed under the auspices of the Chinese embassy in Russia in July in a bid to resolve the closure of the Cherkizovsky Market accommodating thousands of Chinese vendors.

Russian police abruptly shut down the nearly-300-hectare market in northeastern Moscow on June 29, after the disclosure of various illegal and irregular operations in the market by the Russian Federal Supervision Service for Consumer Rights Protection and People Welfare.

A senior Chinese delegation, led by Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, reached broad consensus with the Russian side on the closure issue last month.

Source:Xinhua