BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhuanet) -- A boycott of Japanese goods will damage the interests of both China and Japan, said Bo Xilai, Chinese minister of commerce.

    In a recent interview with local press, Bo said some people have advocated to boycott Japanese commodities to express dissatisfaction with Japan's denial of its "aggression history." In fact, on the sidelines of the economic globalization, the production factors have been allocated in accordance with the law of value, and nations have been interdependent in the economic development.

    Many famous Japanese brand goods are actually made by joint ventures, he said.

    He voiced the belief that the people of advocating the boycott would express their patriotism in a sensible way, safeguard the stability of society and put their patriotism in their work to push forward the economic development.

    He said the Chinese and Japanese peoples and economic circles have benefited from bilateral economic and trade relations, which is reciprocal.

    China's good environment for investment and great potential in market create favorable conditions for the Japanese enterprises in China, which also made contributions to China's economic development, he said.

    He said that calculations show the Japanese enterprises in China have employed 9.2 million people, and in 2004 they paid taxes of 49 billion RMB(5.9 US dollars). Japanese businesses account for 9.1 percent of the total taxes paid by the foreign enterprises in China. The Japanese investors also benefited from China's economic development in return, he added.

    "We don't expect the economic and trade relations between the two countries to be infringed upon," he said.

    Bo said because of the attachment of the importance to Sino-Japanese economic and trade cooperation, China strongly urges the Japanese government to take measures to deal with the issue. This would create favorable environment for bilateral economic and trade relations.

    He said the Chinese government has been committed to building up sound environment for foreign investors and will protect the legal rights of all foreign companies in China.

    As a responsible country and an important member of the World Trade Organization, China will, as always, continue its opening-upand reform and promote the trade exchanges with all nations.

    "Commodities of all nations will have a just treatment in Chinese market," he said, adding "we also hope Japanese business circles would do more to help further economic and trade cooperation to promote friendship between the two countries." Enditem