Chine busca aumentar sus importaciones
China piensa reducir su surplus comercial pero buscando otras maneras de hacerlo sin que el yuan suba rapidamente para disminuir las tensiones con el resto del mundo.
China podria reducir las tarifas a los productos que importa especialmente de los paises en desarrollo.
China quiere estabilizar sus exportaciones, aumentar sus importaciones y disminuir su surplus.
China Looks to Lift Imports
Beijing Seeks to Reduce Trade Surplus With Other Means Than Higher Yuan
By AARON BACK
BEIJING—China plans to shrink its trade surplus further this year but is looking for ways other than rapid yuan appreciation to ease tensions with global trading partners, said the nation's commerce minister.
Beijing wants to "stabilize exports, grow imports, and shrink the trade surplus," Chen Deming said at a press briefing on the sidelines of the National People's Congress, the annual meeting of China's legislature.
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His comments, on the heels of a long list of economic goals laid out by Premier Wen Jiabao, indicate that while the government wants to reduce its large surpluses, it remains wary of allowing rapid appreciation of the currency as a means to do so. The U.S. and others have long accused China of manipulating its currency to keep it artificially low, giving the country an unfair trade advantage.
Mr. Chen said China's trade surplus would likely fall this year, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of gross domestic product, as imports grow faster than exports. Several adverse conditions, including rising prices for raw materials, rising labor costs, and a still-uncertain outlook for the global economy, cloud the outlook for China's exports, he said.
China can't rule out the possibility that it may run a trade deficit for a few months this year, he added.
To boost imports, China is considering cutting tariffs on imported goods and will unilaterally cut tariffs on goods imported from less-developed countries, Mr. Chen said, underscoring the government's priority to shift the economy away from its dependence on exports and industry and toward greater domestic consumption.
In particular, China wants to expand imports from the U.S. and views rebalancing bilateral trade with the world's largest economy as the key to resolving its overall trade surplus, Mr. Chen said.
China's trade surplus narrowed for the second consecutive year to $183 billion in 2010, according to government figures. However, the country's surplus with the U.S. for the year expanded by 26%, to $181.27 billion, which has led to calls from U.S. officials for China to allow faster appreciation of the yuan against the dollar.
Mr. Chen reiterated China's standard line that reform of the yuan exchange rate will be gradual and controlled. He expressed skepticism of an argument that a rising yuan can help offset inflation pressure.
Currency appreciation can help curb inflation in theory, he said, but added that based on his own experience and observations, "in fact, the effect of the exchange rate on inflation can be positive or negative. So we can't look at this too simply. It depends for example on the structure of imports."
In wide-ranging comments,Mr. Chen also defended China's stance on limiting exports of rare-earth metals, arguing that their development is harmful to the environment.
He said he hopes that other countries can share the burden of rare-earth development. China has about 30% of the world's rare-earth reserves, but accounts for more than 90% of global rare-earth production, he said.
China should channel more of its export earnings into international expansion by Chinese companies, Mr. Chen said, rather than funneling it all into China's ever-growing pile of foreign-exchange reserves. Mr. Chen noted that Germany, another major export power, has much lower foreign-exchange reserves because "Germans are quite good at foreign investment."
Last month, China gave in to pressure from its trading partners after years of resistance and agreed at a meeting of the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations to allow exchange rates to be included in a set of indicators that could be used to gauge whether countries' economic policies are contributing to global imbalances.
China's currency hit 6.5565 yuan against the dollar Monday. The yuan has risen 4% against the U.S. unit since June, when China effectively ended its two-year-long peg to the dollar.
—Jean Yung in Shanghai contributed to this article.
Write to Aaron Back at
aaron.back@dowjones.com