China working on increasing imports
4 July 2007
China is working actively to expand imports, said Ministry of Commerce spokesman Wang Xinpei, the Economic Observer reported (in Chinese). It is expected that by 2010, China's import volume will exceed US$1 trillion. The country's surging trade surplus in recent years has caused trade friction between China and its trading partners. China has abolished import permit certificates for more than 1,600 types of goods and is offering loans and providing bilateral preferential treatment and encouraging more foreign goods to access into Chinese market via the Guangzhou Trade Fair, where an exhibition booth was set exclusively for imported goods. Chinese leaders have on many occasions urged the United States and European countries to lift export bans on high-tech products to China. Beijing reduced or eliminated export-tax rebates on 2,831 types of goods, accounting for 37% of the goods covered by customs tax, from July 1 in an effort to reduce the trade surplus.