This report reviewed and summarized China's foreign trade in 2004. According to the report, China¡¯s foreign trade maintained the rapid growth since the second half of 2002, and climbed from the fifth largest country in foreign trade in 2002 to the fourth, which further consolidated its position as a large trading country, and made more contribution to the development of China's national economy. Moreover, there is still a large space left for China's exports to grow rapidly in 2005. However, the complicated and constant-changing international situations pose a potential threat to the world economy, and the keep rising prices of the domestic upstream products will obstruct exports growth. Encouraged by the domestic investment demands, China's imports will continue to go high, but the growth rate will mainly rest with the development trends of domestic investment and the force and effect of macro-economic control.

This report suggests the following issues to be considered  in the development of China's foreign trade: firstly, there will be more difficulties in keeping the trade balance; secondly, the rise in prices of energy source, raw materials, and the structural adjustment of the export rebate rate may affect the export competitiveness of some products; thirdly, there will be tougher situations to handle after China's entry into the WTO; finally, international trade protectionism is likely to rise and trade frictions are increasing.

2 Prospects of China's foreign trade in 2005

3 Issues to be regarded in foreign trade