The Importing and Exporting of China

China Import and Export

First Published Date : March 31, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

China is the second largest economy on the planet and that has a lot to do with its surplus workforce and high amount of natural resources. Currently, China is also one of the world’s largest importers and exporters, something that is helping to fuel the country into the future.

In 1998, China had a global trade of $324 billion and that same year, China reduced its import tariffs from 35 per cent to 23 per cent and then again to 17 per cent. This allowed China to join the World Trade Organization, which has completely changed the country. Only 10 years after making those changes, China now has a global trade value of $2.4 trillion. It took six years (1988 to 1996) to go from $100 billion to $200 billion in global trade, and only seven years to go from $200 billion to $500 billion. From there, it was only three years before China passed the $1 trillion mark.

Currently, China imports mostly capital goods and industrial supplies, most of which are high-technology equipment and most of those come from Japan and the United States.

Due to the high amount of surplus workforce in China, about 80 per cent of the country’s exports are manufactured goods, and most of these are textiles and electronic equipments, along with chemicals and agricultural products.

To attest to the high amount of exporting and importing going on in China, of the five busiest ports on the planet, China has three.

The United States is one of the largest trading partners of China, with the trade surplus reaching over $200 billion. A big reason for this is because of Wal-Mart, which is the seventh largest trading partner with China, ahead of the United Kingdom.

China also trades a great deal with Russia, amounting to over $40 billion. In the past few years, the exports of machinery and electronic goods to Russia has grown immensely, as has its exports of high-tech products. Russia is also the eighth largest trading partner with China, and China is Russia’s fourth-largest trading partner. China mainly gets energy such as oil from Russia, with most of it coming from train, or through pipelines like the proposed Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline.

Within China, there is the China Council For The Promotion of International Trade, which helps to promote China’s international economic and commercial interests. The group does this by developing co-operation among businesses and exchanges with countries around the planet. The group also compiles data, works with diplomatic agencies and is active to ensure that there are no trade issues.

China is a growing nation and one that will soon be the largest economy on the planet. As time goes on, its trade with other growing superpowers will increase, especially India, Russia, Brazil and the European Union. At the same time, trade with the United States may fall as the economy of the United States struggles to remain a dominant power within the international community.