BEIJING — China is opening a front in its campaign to set global technology standards by trying to influence an emerging inventory tracking technology.

The government last week announced the formation of an interagency group to draft standards for the tracking technology, known as radio frequency identification, or RFID. The technology, which allows retailers and suppliers to track shipping containers and pallets as they make their way around the world, eventually could be applied to billions of dollars in goods traded globally.

A team of Chinese bureaucrats and experts will visit the U.S. and Japan next month to meet companies and government agencies promoting competing and potentially incompatible RFID standards, said Edward Zeng, chairman of Sparkice Inc., an electronic-commerce and Internet- cafe chain, and a member of the Chinese task force.

Beijing has been spurred into action by calls from international retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Ark., and Metro Group AG of Germany to begin applying RFID to goods exported from China, possibly requiring huge outlays by Chinese manufacturers.

Nearly 70% of Wal-Mart’s world-wide procurement consists of Chinese- made products, and the retailer wants suppliers to begin using RFID to track shipping containers and pallets beginning in 2005. Metro said last week that its biggest 100 suppliers should start rolling out the technology in November.

The retailers and other proponents of RFID say the technology will spawn a revolution in commerce, helping companies better manage their supply chains, from manufacturers to consumers. RFID involves an array of technologies, including tiny computer chips that are affixed to each product or shipping container and that transmit radio signals, equipment that reads the signals, and servers that store the information for retrieval on Web-based networks. Initially, the technology is expected to be used only to track shipments and inventories, but it eventually could help companies chart purchases by individual consumers, allowing them to amass loads of information on personal preferences.

“Eventually, this will be the DNA of global commerce,” Mr. Zeng said. He noted that China’s $438 billion in exports last year and its growing role as a world-wide manufacturing hub give the country a say in determining RFID standards.