China's foreign trade reached a record US$1.76 trillion last
year accompanied by the trade surplus widening to US$177.5 billion,
according to official figures.
Despite this, experts predict that the equivalent growth in 2007
will stand at a modest 15 percent and 13 percent for the trade
volume and the surplus respectively, compared with 23.8 percent and
74 percent for last year.
Exports in 2006 rose 27 percent year-on-year to US$969 billion
with imports climbing 20 percent to US$791.6 billion, the General
Administration of Customs said yesterday.
Overall, export growth dropped 1.2 percentage points from 2005
while imports climbed 2.4 percentage points.
The total trade volume grew 23.8 percent from a year earlier,
making it five years in a row where this figure has stood above 20
percent.
Trade with each of China's top three partners, the European
Union, the United States and Japan, exceeded US$20 billion.
The surplus widened to a record US$177.5 billion in 2006, up 74
percent from a year earlier. A countrywide breakdown is not yet
available.
As it attempts to counter the mounting pressure of increased
loans caused by the trade surplus, the central bank ordered
commercial banks to increase their reserves from January 1 for the
fourth time in seven months.
The regulator may be pushed to this move another four to five
times this year, reports said.
The record trade surplus last year also led to renewed calls
from the US and the EU for Beijing to take measures to balance
trade.
However, Chinese economists have already predicted the country's
trade surplus is not likely to see a dramatic reduction this year
given China's strength as a global manufacturing center. However,
the annual surplus growth could slow, given the government's
policies to restrict exports and encourage imports.
Despite the dazzling growth in the trade volume, traders are now
facing "worsened" trading conditions, Customs Director Mu Xinsheng
said in a recent interview.
He explained that export costs keep increasing not only because
of price increases in resources, labor and land but also due to the
renminbi appreciation which would contribute to blunting the
competitive edge of "Made-in-China" products.
The nation is also the biggest victim of international trade
protectionism since developed countries have imposed a number of
dumping charges and erected technical trade barriers against
Chinese products.
"It will be more difficult for Chinese exporters to enlarge
their market share in some major developed markets, such as the US
and the EU, during the country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10)," Mu
said.
The Ministry of Commerce has predicted the country's trade
volume would grow by 15 percent to US$2 trillion this year.
The ministry stressed that although China is seeing big
surpluses in the trade of manufactured goods, it suffers from a
trade deficit in the service industry which increased by 44 percent
year-on-year to US$5.7 billion in the first six months of last
year.
(China Daily January 11, 2007)