Black China Blog

Here is how the China Daily is reporting the story.

BEIJING: China Wednesday rejected charges from the United States and Europe against its restrictions on raw materials exports, saying that the country’s policies were in keeping with the World Trade Organization regulations.

The Ministry of Commerce said the restrictions are meant to protect the environment and comply with Chinese trade commitments.

The European Union and the United States said on Tuesday they were taking a complaint to the WTO over China’s export restrictions on some industrial raw materials used in steel, cars, microchips, planes and other products.

The materials at issue include coke, bauxite, fluorspar, magnesium, silicon metal, yellow phosphorus and zinc, according to the complaints sent to the Geneva-based world body.

“The goal of the Chinese side’s policy on the relevant exports is to protect the environment and natural resources, and the Chinese side considers the relevant policy to be compliant with WTO regulations,” the ministry said in a written statement.

It said Beijing hopes to resolve the dispute through dialogue in the WTO.

Separately, the ministry said Beijing has asked the WTO to investigate a US ban on imports of Chinese poultry.

The two countries banned imports of each others’ poultry in 2004 following an outbreak of bird flu. Beijing lifted its ban after a few months and complains Washington has failed to follow through on a pledge to open its market to Chinese poultry exports.

“China’s poultry products cannot be properly exported to the United States, and this has hurt the legitimate rights of the Chinese poultry industry,” ministry spokesman Yao Jian said in the statement. It said Beijing has asked the WTO dispute resolution mechanism to create a group to investigate the US ban.

The following article appeared in today’s China Daily.

China will remove or reduce export taxes on a range of products - from grain and rice to metals and other materials - effective from July 1, the country’s finance ministry said. This is aimed at preventing the trade situation from deteriorating further, analysts said.

Export taxes for indium and molybdenum would be cut from 15 percent to 5 percent; tax on some steel and tungsten products will also be reduced to 5 percent from 10 percent, and export tax on wheat, rice, soybean and sulfuric acid will be scrapped, according to the Ministry of Finance website.

“This shows the government’s intention to stabilize exports amid the continuous drop in growth of foreign trade since late last year,” Li Jianfeng, analyst from Shanghai Securities, told China Daily.

Due to the economic slowdown in the US, Europe and Japan, China’s key trade partners, the nation’s exports witnessed a drop for seven consecutive months since November last year. Analysts said exports might not show positive growth until later this year.

Premier Wen Jiabao said last month that China’s exports situation was severe and that the nation would give more incentives to exporters.

Since late last year, the government has reduced export taxes on a range of commodities, especially in labor-intensive sectors. It has also hiked tax rebates for exports seven times since August 2008.

The following article appeared in today’s China Daily.

China refined a record 31.19 million tons of crude oil in May, up 10.7 percent over the same month last year, according to the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA).

The CPCIA on Monday released figures that showed refined oil output, including gasoline, diesel and kerosene, totaled 19.34 million tons, an increase of 16.7 percent over the same period last year.

Market analysts attributed the increases to surging demand as the domestic economy rebounded from its slowdown.

Sales of refined oil topped 18.32 million tons in May, up 2.3 percent from April, with gasoline sales up 2.9 percent year-on-year, or 3.6 percent from April, to hit 5.61 million tons.

“China’s crude output and sales are expected to continue rising, to meet the demand from heavy industry in particular,” said Jiang Xinmin, an expert with the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s economic planner.

The following article appeared on today’s China Daily website.   Inside China’s economist circles, the World Bank does not enjoy a great reputation.   One economist told me the staff at WB are followers not leaders.   Nevertheless, their forecasts are monitored closely around the world.   An increase in their forecast is sure to cause others to reconsider their predictions.

World Bank Thursday raised its forecast of China’s economic growth rate to 7.2 percent in 2009 from its earlier forecast of 6.5 percent, as the country’s expansionary fiscal and monetary policies have kept the economy growing respectably.

It projects the gross domestic product (GDP) growth of the world’s third largest economy to reach 7.7 percent in 2010 in its China Quarterly Update report released Thursday.

“Growth in China should remain respectable this year and next, although it is too early to say a robust sustained recovery is on the way,” said Ardo Hansson, World Bank’s Lead Economist for China.

The Update, a regular assessment of the Chinese economy, finds that the fiscal stimulus is centered on the 4-trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus plan while the monetary stimulus has led to a surge in new bank lending.

“Positive signs have emerged in the real estate sector. Consumption has held up well. Very weak exports have continued to be the main drag on growth, while import volumes have recovered in the second quarter this year as raw material imports rebounded,” said the report.

Global growth prospects remain subdued even as signs of stabilization have emerged. Financial markets have become less strained and there are prospects for stabilization of activity. However, a rapid global recovery seems unlikely and uncertainty remains, according to the report.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecast in a March report that China’s economy might expand by 7 percent this year.

Zhuang Jian, a senior economist with the ADB office in Beijing, told Xinhua earlier last month that judging from current conditions, China’s economic growth might exceed ADB’s earlier forecast.

Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, forecast on June 12 here that China’s economic growth would stand at around 8 percent this year.

Liu said China’s domestic demand had been recovering steadily and credit growth remaining high, indicating that the series of economic stimulus plans have paid off, while China’s economy still faced severe challenges, including sluggish overseas demands, rising unemployment, and an unstable international economic and financial situation.