Foreign companies are losing market share in China across a broad range of industries because of discriminatory treatment by the government and regulators, according to the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

In its annual position paper, the organisation aired a host of complaints from its member companies and explicitly accused Beijing of violating its World Trade Organisation commitments through heavy-handed certification requirements.

“Compulsory certification in excess of what is reasonable is being used to keep foreigners out of the market and business licence requirements continue to exclude foreign companies from entire sectors,” the group said.

China uses business licensing to restrict foreign access to some sectors and applies “vague and unprecedentedly broad definitions of public security and critical infrastructure” in its certification of a wide range of products, the EU chamber said.

This means foreign companies, particularly in industries such as banking, transportation, information technology and telecommunications, are often unable to sell products in China.

Based on information gathered from hundreds of European companies, the paper is widely distributed in Beijing and Brussels and important in formulating EU-China policy.

The report was published as Lady Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, arrived in Beijing for meetings with Chinese leaders, including Wen Jiabao, the premier.

The content of the paper is unusually critical, reflecting increasing dissatisfaction among foreign businesses in China.

While it is difficult to identify new policies explicitly targeting foreign firms, companies complain that the trend in favour of opening markets has stalled and, in some areas, gone into reverse. “There appears to be a growing willingness and tendency to exclude foreign businesses from the Chinese market,” said Jacques de Boisseson, president of the chamber.

In its business confidence survey, the EU chamber found that 39 per cent of respondents expected the regulatory environment for foreign businesses to worsen over the next two years and a further 22 per cent said they expected no improvement. Only 10 per cent said they thought the regulatory environment would improve.