Economic tightening won't affect trade in near term
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-06-22 19:41
China's efforts to cool surging lending are not likely to significantly slow
its exports in the latter half of this year, a top commerce official said
Thursday.
"We hope for (basic) trade balance, with a slight surplus," Vice Commerce
Minister Liao Xiaoqi told reporters when asked for a forecast for China's trade
surplus this year.
Some economists have said that official measures to cool the country's heated
economic growth, including hikes in the reserve requirement ratio and the
benchmark one-year lending rate, could hurt domestic demand and imports, thus
widening China's trade surplus.
China's trade surplus hit a record monthly high of US$13 billion in May. In
2005, it more than tripled to a record US$102 billion.
Liao also said China is still negotiating with the European Union and the
U.S. over its import tariffs on foreign-made auto parts.
The U.S. contends China's import tariffs are designed to discourage
automakers in China from using imported parts and are at odds with
market-opening commitments made by China when it joined the World Trade
Organization in 2001.
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