China might become US’s 3rd largest export market in ’07
Chinanews, Washington, Dec. 11 – Vice Minister of Commerce Ma Xiuhong recently said that if Sino-US trade could maintain the current growing momentum, China is expected to become the third largest export market for the United States next year.
She made the statement when delivering a speech in Washington last Thursday in her visit to the United States.
Since China established diplomatic ties with the United States 27 years ago, bilateral trade between the two countries has undergone fundamental changes and cooperation between the two countries has expanded to every part of the economic field. China and the United States have forged a pattern characterized by economic interdependence and mutual benefit, seeking win-win outcomes and mutual development. Over the past 27 years, Sino-US trade volume has increased 86-fold, with the United States now becoming China¡¯s second largest trade partner and China the third largest trade partner of the US, she said.
Since China joined the World Trade Organization five years ago, US export to China has witnessed the most rapid growth. During this time, US export trade volume to China has grown at an annual rate 4.9 times that of US export growth rates to other countries. In 2005, US export to China increased by 118% compared with 2001, far exceeding its export growth rates to other major export markets. In 2001, China was the ninth biggest export market of the US, whereas in 2005, it already became the fourth largest export market of the US. China has become an important market pushing up the overall export trade volume of the US. During the first ten months of this year, US export to China reached nearly 50 billion US dollars, exceeding the total amount of last year and increasing by 24% from the same period last year, the vice minister noted.