F REIGN TRADE - 中国国际贸易促进委员会

Encourage
to Boost Imports
By China Times
It’s learned that “adjusting structure and
promoting balance” would be the tone
for China’s foreign trade work in 2010.
However, there’re some changes in specific
policies which will shift attention to boosting
import, unlike previous measures that blindly
focus on encouraging imports; one of the major
measures would be to facilitate the clearance of
customs of commodities by abolishing non-tariff
barriers.
Some insider with the Ministry of Commerce
(MOC) told reporters on December
15th that policy guidance of next year will be
imports-facilitating, which will further reduce
the examination and approval procedures of imports,
and narrow the registration scope subject
to automatic import licensing; the MOC will
continue to promote the reduction of tariffs and
non-tariff barriers and open up manufacturing
and services sectors to push the opening
up of domestic markets. Besides the Ministry
of Commerce will promote key industries and
encourage the introduction of industry supporting
policies, concerning, say, energy-conserving
& environment-friendly industries, high-tech
industries, to promote the restructuring of Chinese
enterprises and the development of service
industry.
Secretary-General of the China Center
for International Economic Exchanges, former
Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce,
Wei Jianguo said that China’s previous study on
import was not enough; rather than take “import”
into serious consideration, major national trade
policies just kept focus on encouraging exports,
which now require timely adjustments.
During the just-ended 2010 Central Economic
Work Conference, there are some changes
in the account concerning foreign trade. The
conference proposed to “attach equal importance
to exports and imports, or more exactly, attracting
foreign investment and investing in foreign
countries, broaden the channels of international
economic cooperation, and enhance opening up
constantly.”
Exports beat market’s expectations
According to some statistics, China’s foreign
trade jumped 36.3 percent from a year earlier
to 2.67728 trillion U.S. dollars from January
to November of 2010. Among that China’s export
recorded at USD 1423.84 billion, up 33.0%
year on year and import rose 40.3% year on year
to USD 1,253.4 billion, resulting in a trade surplus
of 170.42 billion U.S. dollars.
In fact, the Ministry of Commerce estimated
at the end of 2009 that imports and exports
would grow by eight to ten percent in the
whole year of 2010; however, judged by the data
of China’s foreign trade in the first 11 months
of 2010, the recovery of exports has been much
better than expected.
“It’s estimated that export growth rate this
year will be 28 to 30 percent” analyzed by some
from the foreign trade system. The Ministry
of Commerce has raised the estimated export
growth rate to around 25 percent in the symposium
in the 2010 Canton Fair.
This impressive growth rate, however, may
be unsustainable.
Earlier a number of key provinces and cities
engaged in foreign trade have estimated that
overseas demand in the first half of 2011 will be
slowing down greatly, making it difficult to reproduce
the fast growth in 2010.
Feedback from the Canton Fair Autumn
2010 showed that export orders at the fair were
not in large numbers; what’s worse, most of
those are short-term contracts. Some pessimists
are even talking about a negative growth of export
in 2011. “Even if it’s not a negative growth,
the growth rate will be very limited.” Mr. Wei
told reporters, “generally China’s exports next
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