The European Union (EU) has made no progress toward recognizing China's market economy status, EU trade officer Stephen Adams said Friday.

The EU's position remains the same as in an assessment report by the European Commission (EC) issued last month, Adams said in a phone interview with Xinhua.

In June, the EU's executive arm presented an assessment report on China's market status to the EU Council, saying China has met one of five criteria set by the EC and has moved closer to the target on the other four.

Stephen said EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson last month told visiting Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai in Brussels that EU had yet changed its position on the status of China's economy.

On June 12, Mandelson said in an official statement that the EUwill work "constructively" with China on the issue.

"The European Commission notes and welcomes China's efforts to meet MES (Market Economy Status) criteria," Mandelson said. He also proposed measures that China can take to meet the remaining four criteria and be recognized by the EU.

Several Western media, including The Wall Street Journal, reported last week that the EU was considering recognizing China as a market economy in exchange for concessions deemed crucial to balancing trade ties.

"The report is wrong," Stephen said.

China, the biggest victim of the EU's anti-dumping measures last year, has repeatedly urged the EU to recognize its full market status.

The EU, China's biggest trading partner, has always claimed market economy status is a technical issue and put forward five assessment criteria.

However, Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai told a press conference on June 12 that a market economy is diversified and it cannot meet any fixed model or criteria.

China has made remarkable achievements on building up a market economy and should be recognized as a full market economy, he said.

The EU takes the status of China's economy into account when to determine the range of dumping when it conducts anti-dumping investigations.

If the country sponsoring the anti-dumping case believes the commodity exporter being investigated is a "non-market economy" country, the cost data from another country - one with a similar level of development but judged to have a "market economy" - will be used to calculate the so-called normal value and the range of dumping is then determined.