Source: Global Textile Network

The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently released a trade outlook report, lowering its forecast for the growth rate of global goods trade volume in 2016 from 2.8% in April to 1.7%, due to slower economic and trade growth in developing economies such as China and Brazil, as well as a decline in North American imports.

In response, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce stated that this further indicates that the global economic recovery is weak, international market demand is sluggish, uncertain factors are increasing, and we are still in a period of deep adjustment since the international financial crisis.

The Ministry of Commerce pointed out that since the financial crisis, China has been an active "contributor" in driving global economic growth and promoting international trade recovery. According to data released by the IMF, as the world's second-largest economy, China's contribution to global economic growth was over 25% annually from 2009 to 2015. In recent years, with a relatively high development base and a severe and complex international environment, as well as deep-seated contradictions accumulated domestically for a long time, China has relied on reform and innovation to maintain medium to high economic growth and accelerate structural transformation and upgrading. In the first half of 2016, China's economy grew by 6.7%, ranking among the top economies in the world.

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Affected by factors such as sluggish external demand and weakened traditional competitive advantages, China's foreign trade growth rate has slowed down in recent years, but it is still better than the world's major economies. ”The spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce said that in terms of trade volume, China's share of global exports rose to 13.8% in 2015. In the first eight months of 2016, the cumulative decline in China's foreign trade imports and exports narrowed for six consecutive months, showing a trend of stabilization and improvement.

From the perspective of trade volume, according to WTO statistics, the global export trade volume and import trade volume increased by 0.7% and 0.2% respectively in the first half of 2016. During the same period, China's export trade volume and import trade volume increased by 0.6% and 3% respectively, overall better than the global average. As a global trading power, China has implemented an active import policy in recent years and continuously expanded its domestic market opening, which not only meets domestic economic growth and consumer demand, but also makes important contributions to stabilizing the international commodity market and global trade volume.

It should be noted that currently about one-third of China's foreign trade imports and exports are achieved through processing trade, which means "both ends are outward" and mainly depends on changes in international market demand. Due to the long-term weak demand in the international market, China's processing trade imports have been declining for 19 consecutive months, with an average decline of over 10%, which is an important factor driving down China's overall import growth.

The fundamentals of China's long-term economic development have not changed, the complementary advantages of industries with developed and developing countries have not changed, and the trend of accelerating the transformation of foreign trade structure adjustment has not changed, "said the Ministry of Commerce.  

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Global trade protectionism is on the rise

The Ministry of Commerce pointed out that China is the main "victim" of global trade protectionism. According to a report released by the WTO in June this year, from October 2015 to May 2016, the G20 economies implemented 145 new trade restriction measures, with an average of nearly 21 new measures introduced each month. The monthly average number of new measures is the highest level since the WTO began monitoring trade restriction measures in 2009. In the first eight months of this year, China suffered 85 trade remedy investigation cases initiated by 20 countries (regions), involving a total amount of 10.3 billion US dollars, an increase of 49% in the number of cases and 94% in the amount involved.

(Yangcheng Evening News)