April Trade Surplus Slackens     

By Lily Wang    
On April 13th, 2008 the General Administration of Customs of China announced China's foreign trade in April 2008. The total import and export value was US$220.74 billion, a year-on-year increase of 23.9%. The export value rose 21.8% to US$118.71 billion while the import value rose 26.3% to US$102.03 billion. The trade surplus in April was US$16.68 billion, down 1.14% year-on-year, but up 24.4% from US$13.4 billion in March 2008.
   In the first four months of 2008, the foreign trade amounted to US$791.14 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24.4%, in which the export value increased 21.5% to US$424.57 billion while the import value was up 27.9% to US$366.57 billion. The total trade surplus was US$58.0 billion, a decrease of US$4.95 billion or 7.9% year-on-year.
   China's trade surplus has been narrowing since the government took measures to curb exports of resource-intensive and heavily polluting products and encourage imports from 2007.
   In the past four months of 2008, the exports and imports value by foreign-invested firms, state-owned enterprises and other companies in China achieved US$443.52 billion (up 19.7%), US$191.48 billion (up 29.3%) and US$156.14 billion (up 33%) respectively.
   The European Union remained as China's largest trade partner in the first four months of 2008, with bilateral trade of US$129.86 billion, up 25.4% year-on-year. The USA ranked the second with bilateral trade of US$102.34 billion, up 11.4%. The third was Japan with bilateral trade of US$84.69 billion, up 14.6%. The bilateral trade between China and India was US$18.8 billion, up 65.2%.
   For exported goods, the export value of mechanical and electric products was up 24.3% to US$251.24 billion in the previous four months. China exported 230 thousand tons of crude oil and 1.23 million tons of oil products this April, and totally exported 800 thousand tons of crude oil and 4.84 million tons of oil products in the first four months of 2008, down 25.2% and 7.8% respectively.
   For imported goods, the import value of primary products was up 65.7% to US$115.93 billion in the past four months of 2008. China imported 14.24 million tons of crude oil and 3.6 million tons of oil products this April, and totally imported 59.77 million tons of crude oil and 12.68 million of oil products in the first four months of 2008, up 9.8% and 9.2% respectively. China imported 140 thousand units of automobile in the first four months, up 70.1%.