By
The Associated Press
BEIJING - China's trade with the world surged by almost a third last year, and the government predicts slower but still robust growth in 2001, the state-run China Daily said Thursday.
China exchanged $474 billion worth of goods and services with other countries last year, up 31.5 percent from 1999, the newspaper said. Over the last two decades, China's trade has grown at an average annual rate of 13.4 percent, it said.
In 2001, the government expects the value of trade to rise by 8 percent, the paper said. It didn't explain the slowdown, but growth is slowing in the United States, China's biggest export market.
Exports last year rose 27.8 percent to $249.2 billion, driven by increased foreign demand for Chinese high technology, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Imports, meanwhile, surged 35.8 percent to $225.1 billion.
China Daily said exports benefited from strong economies overseas, particularly in Southeast Asia, now recovering from the 1997 financial crisis. In response to that turmoil, China has increased government spending, and China Daily said that money boosted Chinese demand for imports last year.
Xinhua attributed increased imports to greater demand for oil and other raw materials. Experts have also said that a crackdown on smuggling has forced more imports into official channels, where they can be counted.
Also Wednesday, a Chinese negotiator in Geneva said he expects China to work out remaining obstacles to joining the World Trade Organization by next week.
China has already reached agreements with most WTO members about opening up its markets as it tries to complete a 14-year bid to join the global trading body.
