February Trade Surplus Shrank to US$8.56 BN   

By Lily Wang
On March 12th, 2008 the General Administration of Customs of China announced China's foreign trade in February 2008. The total import and export value was US$166.18 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18.4%. The export value rose 6.5% to US$87.37 billion while the import value rose 35.1% to US$78.81 billion.
   The trade surplus shrank to US$8.56 billion in February, lowering US$15.2 billion than that of the same period last year.
   The Customs says import growth outpaced export growth for the five months in a row since last October.
   In the first two months of 2008, the foreign trade amounted to US$365.93 billion, a year-on-year increase of 23%, in which the export value increased 16.8% to US$196.99 billion while the import value was up 30.9% to US$168.94 billion. The total trade surplus was US$28.05 billion, down 29.2% year-on-year.
    According to an official from the Ministry of Commerce, the measures taken by the government such as lowering export rebates and restricting processing trade as well as curbing exports of resource-intensive and polluting products, which have been implemented since 2007, begins to effect now.
   An economist expressed that the appreciation of RMB with respect to US dollars also contributed to the decline in exports.
   In the first two months of 2008, the trade by general trade mode rose 30.7% to US$174.69 billion, of which US$89.74 billion for export, up 17.2%, lowering 37.3 percentage points compared with the same period 2007; US$84.95 billion for import, up 48.7%, lifting 24.7 percentage points. The trade by mode of processing with supplied materials was US$153.92 billion, up 14% year-on-year.
   During January - February 2008, the exports and imports value by foreign-invested firms, state-owned enterprises and other companies in China achieved US$204.52 billion (up 18.8%), US$89.05 billion (up 28.7%) and US$72.35 billion (up 28.5%) respectively.
   The European Union remained as China's largest trade partner in the first two months of 2008, with bilateral trade of US$61.16 billion, up 19.9% year-on-year. The USA ranked the second with bilateral trade of US$47.76 billion, up 9%. The third was Japan with bilateral trade of US$38.48 billion, up 15.1%. The bilateral trade between China and India was US$8.67 billion, up 66%.
   For exported goods, the export value of mechanical and electric products was up 20.5% to US$115.14 billion in the previous two months. China has no export for crude oil in February. China exported 1.21 million tons of petroleum products in February.
   For imported goods, the import value of primary products was up 71.7% to US$53.44 billion in the past two months of 2008. China imported 28.23 million tons of crude oil and oil products in the first two months of 2008, up 9.5% and 27.7% respectively.
    China imported 62 thousand units of automobile in the same period, up 51%.