对外贸易英语

Foreign trade becoming balancedChina's trade surplus diminished sharply by more than 80 per cent year on year in September, moving toward a balanced trade relation with other countries and regions in the world.Statistics from the General Administration of Customs yesterday indicated that the country only recorded a US$290 million trade surplus in its foreign trade in September, down from last September's US$2.12 billion, while the trade surplus in August was US$2.79 billion with a 26 per cent year-on-year growth.The total foreign trade of the world's most populous country reached US$606 billion in the first nine months, rising 36.3 per cent.China sold US$308 billion worth of goods and services to other parts of the world, growing 32.3 per cent, while its imports grew by 40.5 per cent to US$299 billion in the period."People's minds are changing from purely pursuing big numbers in trade surpluses to achieving a balanced and healthy trade relation,'' said Song Hong, a researcher with the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.He pointed out that the fact that import growth overtaking export growth has become a trend since China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001.He explained that as China has been lifting import restrictions and opening its market to other countries and regions, the growth of imports has become rapid.At the same time, since many foreign-invested companies gain rights to sell products locally, they tend to import more raw materials but sell finished products in China, which also increases China's imports and reduces exports, Song added.He said the result would be a help to ease pressure from the United States to some extent.Figures from the United States Department of Commerce showed last week that its trade deficit with China had reached a record high of US$11.7 billion. The Chinese official figure was US$5.8 billion.There is usually a big difference between the figures of the two countries, due to different statistical methods.Thomas Donohoe, chairman and chief executive officer of the US Chamber of Commerce, was impressed by the increasing growth of imports in China."I am pleased that June-August numbers are achieving better growth rates,'' he said at a press conference yesterday."Our hope is that the table will be balanced and China will purchase more products and services from the United States.''Wan Jifei, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that a large portion of Chinese exports to the United States were actually made by US-invested companies in China.He also called for the US government to lift restrictions on the exports of high-tech products."We want to have more high-tech products and services, but it seems that the United States has a very tight control on exporting (those products) to China,'' Wan said.The chambers of commerce of the two countries held their first annual US-China Business Dialogue in Beijing on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss economic and trade issues between the two countries.China's foreign trade nears $2 trillion in 1st 11 monthsChina's total foreign trade was 1.97 trillion U.S. dollars during the first 11 months of this year, up 23.6 percent from a year earlier.The amount surpassed that for all of last year, and the growth rate was 0.1 percentage points higher than the January-October period, the General Administration of Customs said on Tuesday. The total included 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars in exports, up 26.1 percent, and 865.5 billion U.S. dollars in imports, up 20.5 percent.Export growth was 0.4 percentage point less than the January-October period, while import growth was 0.6 percentage point higher.The trade surplus for the 11 months was 238.13 billion U.S. dollars, up 52.2 percent. The growth rate was 6.8 percentage points lower than the level for the first 10 months.In November alone, foreign trade went up 23.9 percent year-on-year to 208.96 billion U.S. dollars, including 117.62 billion U.S. dollars in exports, up 22.8 percent, and 91.34 billion U.S. dollars in imports, up 25.3 percent.Monthly imports exceeded 90 billion U.S. dollars for the first time.November export growth was 0.5 percentage point higher than the October level, whereas import growth was 0.2 percentage point lower.The trade surplus stood at 26.28 billion U.S. dollars in November, up 14.7 percent as against growth of 13.5 percent for October when the surplus was a record high of 27.05 billion U.S. dollars. Last year, China's trade surplus was 177.5 billion U.S. dollars.The statistics indicate that the government's macro-economic control efforts have begun to pay off, said Zhang Yansheng, head of the research institute of foreign trade and economic cooperation under the National Development and Reform Commission.China increased export duties for 142 commodities on June 1, including a 5- to 10-percent tariff on steel products. A month later, the government ended tax rebates for 553 export items and slashed incentives for 2,268 items. Meanwhile, the government encouraged imports of energy, resources and key parts.The moves were intended to restrict exports of energy-consuming products or those causing serious pollution, as well as to balance imports and exports, Zhang said."Price rises also contributed to trade growth," said Mei Xiyu, an analyst with the research institute of the Ministry of Commerce.According to the customs administration, the European Union, the United States and Japan were China's top three trade partners in the first 11 months.Between January and November, China-EU trade was 322.75 billion U.S. dollars, up 27.3 percent, China-U.S. trade, 276.21 billion dollars, up 15.7 percent, and China-Japan trade, 213.83 billion U.S. dollars, up 14 percent.The 11 months saw China export 634.06 billion U.S. dollars worth of machines and electronics, up 27.8 percent, and import 150 million tons of oil, up 12.5 percent and 46.68 million tons of coal, up 38.5 percent."It takes time for China to slow its sizzling exports," Zhang said."Since 2000, manufacturing has quickened the pace of its shift to China, with foreign investment concentrating on export-oriented businesses. The result was a boom in processing trade.Meanwhile, strong demand from neighboring emerging markets and the largely stable American economy also helped buoy China's foreign sales," Zhang added. 11 (Xinhua)Chinas Foreign TradeDuring the Tenth Five-Year Planning, foreign trade of China maintained a rapid development, and strategies of rejuvenating foreign trade through science and technology, winning by quality and going global made new progresses. The gradual improvement of structure of foreign trade, quality and efficiency made an outstanding contribution to the economic and social development.1, Imports and exports developed with a high speed. During the Tenth Five-Year Planning, China's foreign trade went to a new stage and accomplished a historical leap, established the place of a big trading country. From 2001 to 2005, the annual average increase rate of foreign trade was 24.6%, the highest record of foreign trade development since the reform and opening up and much higher than that of global trade and of Chinese economy in the same period. Imports and exports in 2004 broke through US$1 trillion and amounted to US$1.1546 trillion, becoming the third country that trade value of goods exceeded US$1 trillion. Besides, imports and exports in 2005 maintained a growth rate of over 20% and total value hit US$1.4221 trillion.2, Structure of imports and exports was improved step by step. From 2001 to 2005, total exports were close to US$2.4 trillion. Share of industrial products exports in total exports increased from 90.1% to 93.6%, and of electromechanical and hi-tech products rose from 44.6% and 17.5% to 56% and 28.6% respectively, up by 2.6 and 3.7 times. Meanwhile, exports of agricultural products, textile, chemical products and major light products were up by 73.4%, 120.4%, 173.7% and 105.2% respectively. In the same period, total imports reached US$2.2 trillion, share of primary products imports increased from 18.8% to 22.4%, and imports of agricultural products, raw material of textile products, base metal and mineral products were up by 154.7%, 41.6%, 174.6% and 276.3% respectively.3, Strategy of rejuvenating foreign trade through science and technology made a positive progress. From 2001 to 2005, contract value of introduced technology were about US$73 billion, and there were over 240 enterprises with exports of hi-tech products exceeding US$100 million, forming a promotion system of rejuvenating foreign trade through science and technology with 20 cities, 25 bases, 12 categories of commodities and 1000 enterprises. Number and value of introduced technology contracts in 2005 hit the highest historical level.4, Various kinds of trading forms developed together. From 2001 to 2005, imports and exports by conventional trade and processing trade increased by 1.6 and 1.9 times respectively, and amounted to US$594.8 billion and US$690.5 billion respectively in 2005. Strategy of "Bring in" and "Going Global" developed with a high speed, China totally attracted US$266.9 billion foreign investment within 5 years, foreign investment enterprises played a more important role in imports and exports, and the proportion went up from 50.8% to 58.5%. In 2005, China newly established 440 thousand foreign investment enterprises with actual use of foreign investment of US$60.3 billion, which drove up the exports.5, Pattern of diversification of foreign trade entities had come into shape. After the entry into WTO, China expedited the release of rights of imports and exports. On Jan. 1, 2004, Measures on Registration of Foreign Trade Operators and newly revised Foreign Trade Law were published and implemented at the same time, helping collective and private enterprises to enter into distribution area and honored WTO commitment half a year ahead of schedule . From 2001 to 2005, number of domestic enterprise that obtaining the rights of imports and exports increased from 450 thousand to more than 200 thousand, imports and exports of foreign investment enterprises and private enterprises were up by 1.9 and 5 times. Share of private enterprises in total imports increased from 4.7% in 2001 to 15.8% in 2005.6, Market diversification obtained new progresses. During the period from 2001 to 2005, proportion of Chinese imports and exports at traditional markets like America, Japan and EU was down from 48.8% to 43.1% but at new markets up from 13.4% to 18.7%, and at Africa and Latin America up from 2.2% and 2.7% to 2.8% and 3.6% respectively.7, In 4 years after China's entry into WTO, domestic major industries did not greatly affected. Within the 4 years after the entry into WTO, Chinese economy maintained a momentum of steady and rapid development, made an obvious effect in macro control, unsteady and unhealthy factors in the process of economic operation was controlled. Major industries developed steadily, industrial structure optimized gradually and international competitiveness improved obviously, which further enhanced the influence of global economy. Besides, domestic market operated steadily, counter-measures in automobile, refinery and petrochemical industry in the transition period was powerful, Chinese major industries was slightly influenced by imported productsForeign trade expected to grow 15 to 20% in 2006The growth rate of China's foreign trade in 2006 may not be as rapid as last year's but it is still expected to increase between 15 percent and 20 percent, an official with the Ministry of Commerce said.The total volume of imports and exports will reach 1.63 trillion to 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars in 2006, according to Lu Jianhua, director of the Foreign Trade Department under the Ministry of Commerce.China's foreign trade volume totaled 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars in 2005, up 23.2 percent over the previous year, statistics from the General Administration of Customs show.The country's exports amounted to 762 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 28.4 percent year on year; and imports were 660.12 billion U.S. dollars, a rise of 17.6 percent.China will continue to witness a large trade surplus this year,which will probably be lower than last year's, Lu said.Rocketing exports helped China post a trade surplus of 101.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, an increase of 69.9 billion dollars from 2004.Lu listed some unfavorable factors that may affect China's foreign trade growth in 2006. These include the unbalanced development of the global economy, increasing trade friction, continued growth of the U.S. trade deficit and fluctuations of global exchange rates and trade policies.He expected China's exporters will face overseas anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases involving more than 5 billion U.S. dollarsin 2006.New trade disputes between China and the United States, the European Union will probably occur in textiles, auto parts, home appliances, chemical products and steel and iron products, he said.China still faces a serious oversupply problem domestically, requiring many industries to find more export channels for their over-stocked commodities, he said.A recent survey by the ministry shows that supply of 430 types of goods, 71.7 percent of the sample survey, exceeds the demand on the Chinese market, while supply of 170 other goods remains stable and equal to demand.Despite these unfavorable factors, China's foreign trade growth will continue to be the main driving force behind the economy, Lu said.The world economy is expected to grow about 4.3 percent this year, and the demand from international markets will continue to expand along with China's exports, he said.Lu suggests Chinese companies enhance their technological innovation as well as research and development in order to beat competition in lower- cost countries.Chinese companies should follow the international rules and use international rules to protect their own interests in dealing with international trade disputes, he said.