As thousands of Chinese people flock to the ongoing biannual Beijing Auto Show, most of them are hoping just to choose their favorite model for future purchase, rather than to buy the car now.

"I have no plans to buy a car in the near future, because the price is still dropping," said Shang Qingsheng, a Beijing visitor from a petrochemical research institute in Beijing.

Like Shang, a visitor from Hubei province, Qin Shangsheng, agreed that right now was not the best time to buy a car since the price will drop further in the next year.

The decreased number of car purchasers in China currently is exerting its influence on the auto market.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Thursday that during May, the growth rate of China's auto market dropped compared with that of the April, with the growth rate of car production dropping 12.1 percentage points, and the total sales even dropped 20 percent.

According to promises upon its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), China will cancel its auto import quota from Jan. 1, 2005, which remained at 10.49 billion US dollars this year.

China will also cut tariff rates on imported car units to 25 percent and auto parts to 10 percent by July 1, 2006.

Experts held that the year 2004 will be the last year before China cancels its auto import quota, and also the last year before China cuts tariff rates for imported cars, which will surely influence the whole auto market in China.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2004)