BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- China will launch a sequence of measures to stabilize foreign trade, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Tuesday.
The country's foreign trade maintained steady growth in the first five months of this year, with the imports and exports of goods climbing to 12.1 trillion yuan (about 1.76 trillion U.S. dollars), up 4.1 percent year on year, according to the MOC.
Given the current global economic climate, stabilizing foreign trade is a crucial step toward the sustainable and healthy development of the national economy, Chu Shijia, head of the comprehensive department of the MOC, said at a news conference.
To further inject stability into foreign trade, the country will continue to implement policies to improve business environment, including accelerating the negotiation on high-standard free trade agreements and regional free trade agreements with more countries, said Zhu Yong, deputy director of the department of foreign trade of the MOC.
Meanwhile, this year is expected to see more national bases for foreign trade transformation and upgrading, which aim to foster industrial clusters to facilitate enterprise innovation and development, according Zhu.
The ministry will step up efforts to discover global markets, expand imports, lower tariffs and cut administrative costs for imports, Zhu said, adding that a series of national innovation demonstration zones for promoting imports will be built and preparation is being made for the second China International Import Expo (CIIE).
Looking ahead, Chu stressed that the country boasts various conditions for continuing the stable growth of foreign trade, attributing the stability to favorable policies, market expansion and enterprises' improvement in their capabilities of handling risks.
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