F REIGN TRADE - 中国国际贸易促进委员会

year does not seem to be optimistic; a
decline of 10 to 15 percentage points is
expected.”
According to the insider from
the MOC China’s foreign trade policies
will start to put more emphasis
on the adjustment of trade structure
from 2012; the country’s foreign trade
growth target will thus expectedly be
lowered.
Huo Jianguo, the president of
the Chinese Academy of International
Trade and Economic Cooperation, an
institute under the Ministry of Commerce,
gave the same judgment. He
estimated that exports growth in 2011
will be around 15 to 16 percent; and
imports will rise slightly faster, at a rate
of 17 to 18 percent.
Emphasis will be put on
boosting imports
It’s the first time for China to position
import so high in the country’s
overall strategy.
In fact, foreign trade policies
have been showing signs of a shift ever
since the start of the latter half of 2010.
Reporters have noted that, officials
with the Ministry of Commerce have
been talking about taking a series of
measures to further boost imports and
maintaining a balanced development of
foreign trade.
In order to further expand imports
volume, the Chinese government has already
taken several measures, including
lowering the import tariffs. The general
tariff level in this country has been lowered
at 9.8 percent in 2010, and China
has further cut import tariffs of some
raw materials and consumer goods and
formulated policies for domestic sales of
processing trade companies.
However, the Ministry of Commerce
will focus more on expanding
imports in 2011.
The insider with the Ministry
of Commerce told the reporter, the
Ministry of Commerce will focus on
encouraging imports from the countries
with trade deficit with China, the Ministry
of Commerce is even considering
opening up unilaterally, relaxing import
regulation, lowering import costs, simplifying
import financing for domestic
enterprises etc. In addition, the Ministry
of Commerce will also support and
organize various forms of investment
and trade promotion missions to “go
out” to invest and procure in 2011.
Talking about the expansion of
imports, Bai Ming, Deputy Director
of the Research Department of International
Market under the Chinese
Academy of International Trade and
Economic Cooperation (CAITEC), an
affiliate of the Ministry of Commerce,
said, “Apart from technology, China
mainly needs to import resources,
which for the most part refer to commodities,
such as iron ore, crude oil.”
To further enhance trade facilitation,
China will continue to clean up nontariff
barriers, improve trade policies,
measures and customs inspection
procedures, continue to simplify and
relax certain import regulations, reduce
import procedures, as well as reduce
import costs.
Long Guoqiang, Director of
the Research Department of Foreign
Economic Relations, Development Research
Center of the State Council, told
reporters that Europe and the United
States need to relax the controls of
technology export to China; for China’s
part, the country should further open
up the markets unilaterally, and give
preferential trade treatment to the least
developed economies to promote the
liberalization of regional trade and
multilateral so as to increase imports.
Domestic and foreign trade
will be integrated
The country should look forward
to plan for the future as well as pay
attention to the current situation to
deliver a good result in foreign trade in
2011, as it’ note worthy that 2011 is the
first year of the 12th Five-Year Plan.
It is known that in the 12th Five-
Year period great emphasis will put on
the transformation of the structure,
quality, technology and standard of
China’s foreign trade, with focus on
urging the change of processing trade.
What’s more, the Ministry of Commerce
will also help foreign trade companies
to enter the domestic market
gradually in 2011.
Chen Deming, the Minister of
the Ministry of Commerce, noted in
his investigation and research of foreign
trade in Guangzhou, that “I believe
China’s foreign trade structure will
be greatly changed and improved and
domestic market will integrate with
overseas market after a few years’ time,
especially in the 12th Five-year period.
In my opinion the future Chinese domestic
market will surpass Japan’s market
significantly to become the world’s
second largest domestic market.”
Some people engaged in foreign
trade indicated that, in addition to an
expanding foreign trade size, China’s
foreign trade team will be changed
fundamentally with the transformation
of international market pattern and the
country’s economic development mode.
Mr. Bai commented that China’s
foreign trade will shift from a “masstrader
pattern” to a “go-getter pattern”
in the next five years; companies with
few variations of products and weak
bargaining power will be eliminated
gradually.
Along with the unification of domestic
and overseas market, the product
chain and industry chain of Chinese
foreign trade enterprises will be further
“extended” in the future, similar
to the production and operation mode
of current multinational enterprises in
developed countries; and it will become
a trend for manufacturing companies
to move from “Made-in-China” to
“Created-by-China” in accordance with
their own needs for development.
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