China active contributor to world trade growth: MOC

BEIJING - China has been an active contributor to global trade growth but a major victim of rising protectionism, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Saturday in response to a WTO report.

The World Trade Organization report released on Tuesday brought down the global cargo trade growth projection in 2016 from 2.8 percent to 1.7 percent, citing slower economic and trade growth in developing countries like China and Brazil and a decline in imports from North America.

A sluggish global economy is the fundamental reason for slowing trade growth, and international financial market fluctuations and rising protectionism have added to the headwinds, while China has been an active contributor to global economic and trade growth since 2008, the MOC said.

China's contribution to global economic growth stood at over 25 percent in the past seven years, and the country's GDP growth reached 6.7 percent in the first half of 2016, an impressive performance among major world economies.

The country's trade growth drop had narrowed for six consecutive months by August, exports and imports outperformed the global average in the first half of this year, and China's growing import demand for commodities such as crude oil and iron ore has been rising in the past few years, the statement said.

About one third of China's trade is processing trade, which is susceptible to international market fluctuations, thus weighing on overall trade growth, the statement said.

China still has sound fundamentals for long-term stable growth and complementary industrial advantages with both developing and developed countries, while the country will continue to accelerate reforms in trade structure, the statement said.

Meanwhile, China is a major victim of rising global trade protectionism, and suffered 85 trade remedy investigations worth $10.3 billion from 20 countries and regions in the past eight months, the statement said.

The G20 Hangzhou Summit, which concluded early last month, called for coordinated trade policies to facilitate international trade growth and investment, according to the statement, which added that China is willing to work with other countries to promote trade facilitation and fight against protectionism.