China vows to increase foreign imports

A worker monitors the loading of shipping containers at a port in Wuhan, Hubei province. AFP Photo

BEIJING — China has vowed to make it easier to import goods into its huge market as Beijing seeks to address controversial trade surpluses with its trading partners, a report said Monday.

Beijing will “loosen its regulation of imports, cut import costs and make import financing easier for domestic companies,” among other measures, said Chong Quan, a top trade official, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

Chong, who is the commerce ministry’s deputy China International Trade Representative, added that the government will encourage imports from nations with which it is running a trade surplus, the report said.

China also will actively import energy, advanced technology and other equipment, Chong said at a trade forum in the capital.

The report did not mention any further details of measures China would take.

China overtook Germany last year to become the world’s top exporter. Its foreign exchange reserves stood at 2.45 trillion dollars at the end of June — also the largest in the world.

China’s export success has consistently drawn criticism from major trading partners such as the United States, with which it runs a large trade surplus. Washington has long pushed China to import more foreign goods.

Foreign pressure for a stronger Chinese currency has also mounted, with critics including US lawmakers claiming the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, giving China’s exporters an unfair advantage.

The People’s Bank of China pledged in June to let the yuan trade more freely against the dollar, but the currency has changed less than 0.7 percent since then.

The yuan had been effectively pegged at about 6.8 to the dollar from mid-2008, when the global financial crisis started to bite.

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