China actively responds to export trade frictions

The National Council for Trade Promotion will be held in Beijing on the 9th. Zhong Shan, deputy minister of the Ministry of Commerce, said that since last year, trade frictions involving Chinese exports have intensified. Not only labor-intensive industries such as light industry, textiles, and steel have been hit, but emerging industries such as communications and photovoltaic solar energy have also been hit. The lack of external demand in the international market and international competition have become fiercer. The foreign trade situation facing China this year has become more complicated and severe.

It is understood that in 2011, the National Trade Promotion System participated in 609 arbitration cases totaling 1.23 billion U.S. dollars; it involved the mediation of 1,752 foreign-related disputes involving USD 850 million. CIETAC has newly accepted 1119 trade arbitration cases, an increase of 7.9% year-on-year, and the disputed amount totaled 11.62 billion yuan***.

Zhang Wei, vice president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that in response to the growing international trade friction, the CCPIT will continue to do a good job in commercial legal services to help companies enhance their ability to deal with trade frictions while continuing to represent and participate in the international business on behalf of the business community. The formulation and revision of the rules will promote the stable and balanced development of China’s export-oriented economy by carrying out all-round and multi-form economic and trade promotion and non-governmental exchange activities.

The year 2012 is the crucial year for the implementation of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, and the domestic and international environment facing China’s foreign trade development will become more complicated. Due to the rising cost of domestic labor and other factors, competition from other developing countries with China in terms of labor-intensive products is also intensifying, and the export advantages of China's labor-intensive products are facing challenges.

Statistics show that since the third quarter of last year, the proportion of China's export products in the United States, European Union, and Japan has dropped by 1.3, 1 and 0.6 percentage points respectively. Among them, exports of seven categories of labor-intensive products, such as textiles, clothing, footwear, bags, furniture, toys, and plastic products, declined significantly.

In order to effectively stabilize exports, trade promotion agencies at all levels in 2011 fully utilized the exhibition industry's unique role in expanding domestic demand and stabilizing external demand, and strived to nurture brand exhibitions. By the end of 2011, the CCPIT had organized 230 overseas exhibitions, participated in 5732 overseas exhibitions, organized nearly 40,000 exhibiting companies, and reached a contractual value of US$20.3 billion.

Zhang Wei stated that CCPIT will continue to implement export diversification policies and help enterprises develop new markets. In addition, the CCPIT will also focus on the transformation of economic development mode and the adjustment of industrial structure to promote the development of low-carbon economy, green economy, cultural industry, and service trade. Actively encourage the export of products with independent brands and core technologies as well as the import of advanced technology equipment and bulk commodities such as energy, grain, and cotton.