China needs to address obstacles to growth momentum

IF CHINA is to sustain its growth momentum, there are four major hurdles it will need to face, in the view of one of the country’s directors in the Customs department. Quoted in People’s Daily Online recently, he said that China should deal firstly with pressure from international markets that are gradually becoming saturated. In 2005 the volume of Chinese exports ranked third in the world, making up 7.3% of the world’s total volume, 3.4 percentage points up from 2000. In 2005, ranked among the world’s top ten countries in terms of export volume, China was growing much faster than the other nine countries, exceeding the world’s average rate of 13%. The increasing cost of labour and environmental protection were also factors of concern, he said, pushing up the cost of Chinese exports. China has tightened restrictions on the export of products that consume a lot of energy, create a lot of pollution or use a lot of resources in their production. Limited resources and the environment have therefore become major obstacles to the growth of Chinese exports, he said. He also sees increasing international trade protection as a stumbling block for future growth. China has been involved in the world’s largest number of anti-dumping cases in recent years. The growing trade imbalance between China and other countries will also create new challenges for Chinese enterprises.