November 6, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 10, 1424

HONG KONG, Nov 5: Chinese Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan said on Wednesday continued strong economic growth in China would significantly boost total trade this year to $800 billion.

Delivering a keynote speech at a CEO forum organized by Businessweek, Zeng said total trade in the first three quarters to September soared 36.2 per cent from a year earlier to $600 billion, adding that China aimed to achieve total trade of $800 billion for 2003.

Imports were up 40.5 per cent from a year earlier at $298.6 billion.

China’s mounting trade surplus has irked the United States, which has complained strongly that China’s currency, pegged to the US dollar, is undervalued and gives Chinese exporters an unfair advantage as it makes US goods too expensive for the Chinese market.

The US trade deficit with China grew 13 per cent in July from the previous month to $11.3 billion while the US deficit with China last year was a staggering $103 billion.

Zeng also revealed the country’s foreign reserves stood at $401 billion at the end of October.

The Chinese yuan has been pegged at 8.28 yuan to the US dollar for the past nine years and is blamed by Washington for US job losses and export woes.

US trade officials have also recently accused China of not doing enough to abide by its World Trade Organization commitments, such as its failure to crack down on piracy of intellectual property rights.

However, Zeng pledged China would “strive to raise economic transparency and protect intellectual property rights.

“Two years after entering the WTO, we will continue to open up our market in accordance to terms agreed ... to enhance free trade and investment and pursue continuity in our economic policy”, he added.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) rose 11.9 per cent year-on-year to $40.2 billion for the first nine months of the year, said Zeng, adding China aimed to attract some $50 billion in FDI in 2003.—AFP