Excise Policy News
- Nation to reduce trade surplus
Date: 12-Jul-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
CHINA will work harder to cut the nation's fast-expanding trade surplus, the commerce ministry said yesterday, a day after data showed the balance hit an all-time high in June.
'We will continue to take measures to reduce the trade surplus and expand imports so as to realize more balanced trade,'ministry spokesman Wang Xinpei told reporters.
Wang added the government was also looking into some financial measures to boost imports but he did not explain what those measures would be.
The country announced Tuesday the trade surplus for June soared 85.5 percent to hit a record monthly high of US$26.91 billion. In the first six months of the year, the trade surplus jumped 83.1 percent to US$112.53 billion.
Wang attributed the dramatic jump in June to manufacturers rushing to ship orders before a range of export tax rebates were slashed or removed July 1.
The government announced June 19 that it would cut or remove export tax rebates for 2,831 commodities, or a third of total exports, from the beginning of this month in another effort to bring some balance to the trade account.
Wang said the trade surplus growth was expected to slow in the second half of 2007 but he did not give any forecast for the full year.
China's top economic planning body said in May that the trade surplus was likely to hit US$250 billion-US$300 billion in 2007, up from a record US$177.5 billion last year and a massive increase from US$31.98 billion in 2004.
The surplus has been a constant source of friction with its major trading partners, mainly the United States and the European Union, where jobs have been lost as industries have been unable to compete with cheap Chinese imports.
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