China to Enlarge Import of Consumer Goods

China is to moderately enlarge its import of consumer goods for trade balance on its way of economic restructuring, said an official on the 2012 China International Import Conference held in Beijing during September 6-7.

Wang Shouwen, director of the Foreign Trade Department under the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) made the remarks at the conference held by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade(CCPIT). He stressed that although the growth of China’s foreign trade is slowing, the import of consumer goods is expanding, which makes it a highlight in China’s foreign trade.

He said that China is to promote the integration of imports and domestic circulation, especially encourage domestic business to develop direct purchase

platforms for selling foreign branded consumer goods.

“China’s foreign trade has entered an era of import and export with equal stress,” said Wan Jifei, president of the CCPIT, in his opening speech at the conference.

China’s economy is transforming from export-led to more balanced and consumption-led. China is now the world’s largest exporter and the secondlargest importer. Data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed that in the first half of this year, China’s import of consumer goods reached $60.4 billion, up 25.6 percent year on year.

China is in an era of quickening industrialization and urbanization, with a vast large market place for consumption goods and great potential for future development. Official data shows that the total retail sales of consumer goods amounted to RMB 18.12 trillion in 2011, up 17.1 percent over the previous year.

To enlarge imports of consumption goods is conducive in four aspects: it can satisfy consumers’ diversified needs, especially those high-end consumers; it will introduce new consumption concept, thus prompting the upgrading of consumption structure; it helps to reduce foreign trade surplus and benefits foreign trade balance, especially the recovery of world economy; it also helps to reduce foreign exchange reserve, said Xu Hongcai, an expert with China Center for International Economic Exchanges, a government think-tank.

During the conference, Amazon China signed a cooperation memorandum with , a B2B marketplace engaged in imported goods under the leadership of the CCPIT. This marks the entrance of the flagship store of to Amazon. cn. It followed the “Korean Life House”jointly built by Amazon China and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency upon its website in August. This signifies Amazon China’s important action to boost China’s strategic goal of foreign goods and improve its business.

“Through this cooperation, Amazon China has provided a platform for consumers to purchase quality imported goods, and also helps outstanding foreign brands to tap into the Chinese market. This is also a step of our ‘Opening stores globally’ policy,” said Wang Hanhua, CEO of Amazon China.

“In the future, we hope to introduce Amazon’s quality merchants to China’s market and recommend Chinese enterprises to the global platform of Amzaon,”Wang told China’s Foreign Trade in an exclusive interview.

Wang is optimistic with China’s domestic consumption.“China’s consumers are upgrading their consumption level. No doubt that Chinese are spending a lot on luxuries. As for daily necessities, Chinese are also eyeing for foreign goods, due to their worries of food safety in the domestic market.”

While, with regards to some doubts of the lacking of consumer motivation, that’s not because Chinese don’t have power of consumption, but because of their concerns of health care, education, housing and pension, said Wang.

Chinese consumers still tend to deposit and save. But on the other hand, China is the third largest consumer of luxuries in the world. So it is urgent to prompt domestic consumption by easing their worries, he added.

China will expand imports of high-tech equipment, key components and daily necessities in order to balance trade. As one of the actions, the 2nd China International Import Expo will be held in Kunshan, Southeast China’s Jiangsu Province in 2013.