Trade Surplus Falls in Q1
By Lily Wang
On April 11th, 2008 the General Administration of Customs of China announced China's foreign trade in March 2008. The total import and export value was US$204.52 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27.8%. The export value rose 30.6% to US$108.96 billion while the import value rose 24.6% to US$95.56 billion. The trade surplus was US$13.4 billion in March, an increase of 95% from US$6.87 billion in the same period of 2007. According to analysts, a rebound of exports (trade surplus) in March compared with that of February may be affected by the unfavorable seasonal factors like the Chinese New Year and the snowstorms that seriously curtailed the growth of exports this February.
   In the first three months of 2008, the foreign trade amounted to US$570.38 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24.6%, in which the export value increased 21.4% to US$305.9 billion while the import value was up 28.6% to US$264.48 billion. The total trade surplus was US$41.42 billion, a decrease of US$5.02 billion or 10.6% year-on-year, representing the first quarterly decline in three years.
   The deceleration of the trade surplus growth in the first quarter is a sign that the country's efforts to reduce its trade imbalance are taking effect. Chinese government has expected a slowdown of exports in recent years, in order to prevent the economy from overheating and raise energy efficiency and cut pollution.
   But some economists are considering that vigorous trade surplus growth has turned negative since 2008 so faster than most of them expected, making domestic exporters too difficult to endure. In 2007, Chinese exporters were faced with an appreciation RMB with respect to US dollars, tighter domestic policies and rising labor and material costs. The constant appreciation of RMB with US dollars continues to drive the decline in exports this year, which is a bigger challenge managed by domestic exporters.
   In the past three months of 2008, the exports and imports value by foreign-invested firms, state-owned enterprises and other companies in China achieved US$320.5 billion (up 18.8%), US$138.5 billion (up 31.5%) and US$111.38 billion (up 35%) respectively.
   The European Union remained as China's largest trade partner in the first three months of 2008, with bilateral trade of US$93.92 billion, up 24.7% year-on-year. The USA ranked the second with bilateral trade of US$73.67 billion, up 10.5%. The third was Japan with bilateral trade of US$60.49 billion, up 14.4%. The bilateral trade between China and India was US$13.23 billion, up 61%.
   For exported goods, the export value of mechanical and electric products was up 23.1% to US$181.37 billion in the previous three months.
   For imported goods, the import value of primary products was up 70% to US$83.95 billion in the past three months of 2008. China imported 17.3 million tons of crude oil and 3.13 million tons of oil products this March, and totaling imported 45.53 million tons of crude oil and 9.08 million tons of oil products in the first quarter 2008, up 14.9% and 13.8% respectively. China imported 103 thousand units of automobile in the first quarter, up 74.7%.