By Tom Miles
GENEVA Dec 14 (Reuters) – China expects trade
disputes to increase next year as global markets contract due to
European and U.S. economic weakness, China’s trade minister Chen
Deming said on Wednesday.
“There is a possibility of trade protectionism getting more
serious next year, because next year we expect the global market
might contract,” Chen told a news conference of BRICs trade
ministers in Geneva.
“If we look at countries around us, for example Europe and
the United States, we’re all going to face difficulties brought
about by these two areas.”
Chen was speaking on the eve of the World Trade
Organization’s ministerial conference in Geneva, an event held
every two years, and after China announced it would slap duties
on large cars and SUVs imported from the United States. He did
not refer to that case.
“China has made a promise to free trade and we will honour
our words. We have said we will not abuse trade remedy measures.
At the same time we do not fear others using trade remedies or
protectionism. We will use the rules enshrined in the WTO’s
multilateralism system to protect ourselves,” Chen said.
The BRICs group comprises the rapidly growing emerging
economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Chen said China’s own exports had been falling by about two
percent per month for the last three months, mainly due to the
contraction in European and U.S. markets.
“Therefore next year we will continue to make efforts to
stabilise our exports and at the same time stand against
protectionism by expanding our imports continuously in order to
achieve a balanced trade,” he said.
“In actual fact this year the total trade of China might
already be quite balanced. In actual fact in the past few months
the RMB (yuan) exchange rate has suffered some decrease in terms
of the exchange rate for forward trade.”
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