China foreign trade to top $840b: Vice Minister

China foreign trade to top $840b: Vice Minister

Beijing, Agence France-Presse

China's foreign trade is expected to top US$840 billion this year, up 35 percent from 2002 and making the nation the world's fourth biggest trader, a leading trade official said on Sunday.

According to vice trade minister Yu Guangzhou, China's exports will top $430 billion, while imports will be valued at about $410 billion this year, the China News Service reported.

Yu, speaking at a nationwide trade meeting, said China's dynamic trade performance was based on the country's fast-paced economic growth, a domestic market with a large potential and a cheap labor force that is becoming stronger and more skilled.

Adjustments in global demand and supply were also benefiting China, while China was also importing more goods to feed a growing domestic consumer market, he said.

China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) has also boosted trade as it resulted in China's import tariffs falling and non-tariff measures being removed, he added.

China's economy is expected to grow by 8.5 percent this year.

By becoming the world's fourth largest trading nation, China will overtake France, leaving it behind only the United States, Japan and Germany.

Yu's comments marked the second time this month that a vice minister of trade predicted that China would become the world's fourth largest trading nation this year.

However, China's figures appeared to be a narrower tabulation of numbers and do not include trade in services.

Yu also said that actual foreign direct investment (FDI) into China during the first 11 months of the year reached $47.2 billion, while FDI for the entire year was expected to be about equal to last year's $52.7 billion.

China's total exports in the first 11 months were valued at $390 billion, up 32.9 percent year-on-year, while imports rose 39.1 percent year-on-year to $370.6 billion, the General Administration of Customs reported earlier this month.

China's imports for November were valued at $36.8 billion, while exports totaled $41.7 billion.

According to figures from the WTO, China was the world's fifth largest merchandise exporter in 2002 with $325.6 billion. That put it right behind France, with $331.8 billion, and well ahead of Britain, with $279.6 billion.