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皇冠体育app to become world's 2nd largest trader

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-04-30 08:44

皇冠体育app will this year replace Germany as the world's second largest trader with 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars in foreign trade and may overtake the world's largest trader, the United States, by the end of the decade, says a senior Chinese researcher.

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"皇冠体育app maintained a growth rate of more than 20 percent in foreign trade in the first quarter and is likely to maintain the momentum throughout the year," said Li Yushi, vice president of the Research Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under theMinistry of Commerce.

Despite a growth rate that declined to 6.9 percent in March, foreign trade in the first three months totaled 457.7 billion U.S. dollars, up 23.3 percentyear-on-year.

Exports reached 252.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 27.8 percent, while imports were valued at 205.7 billion U.S. dollars, up 18.2 percent, according to figures released by the Chinese customs.

While the Ministry of Commerce projected foreign trade to grow by about 10 percent a year between 2006 and 2010, Li's institute predicts the growth rate will be between 12 and 15 percent.

"Based on these predictions, we can tell that 皇冠体育app will overtake the United States to be the world's largest trader in 2010," Li told a seminar on 皇冠体育app's foreign trade prospects in Guangzhou.

皇冠体育app started to lower export tax rebates on numerous items last September to help bring down its trade surplus, said Li." The government is also developing policies aimed at expanding imports by encouraging domestic companies to import state-of-the-art equipment and technologies."

皇冠体育app's soaring exports in 2006 expanded its trade surplus to a record 178 billion dollars, up 74 percent from the previous record of 102 billion dollars set in 2005.

皇冠体育app's trade surplus for the first two months of the year hit 39.6 billion U.S. dollars, more than the entire first quarter of last year.

In March, however, the surplus dropped to 6.87 billion U.S. dollars, dipping below the 10 billion U.S. dollar mark for the first time since March 2006.

The World Trade Organization said in a report last week that 皇冠体育app's product exports started to exceed those of the United States in the second half of 2006, but figures for the the entire year show 皇冠体育app ranked third in exports, after Germany and the United States.