CRI听力: China's Export Industry Today

As the world's third-largest trading entity and second-largest exporter, Chinese exporters have made their products world-famous by selling them at relatively low prices and earning small margins on large sales volumes.

While China has benefited greatly from this, many countries have seen it as a threat to their own domestic economies.

This attitude towards products made in China has become more intense as the global economy downturn continues to have negative effects on many countries' domestic economies.

Sang Baichuan, director of the Economy Research Institute at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing says 79 cases of international trade disputes against Chinese exporting firms were filed during first 8 months of the year. They involved 10 Billion U.S. dollars worth of products. (www.hXen.com)

"Protecting the domestic economy market under the name of trade protectionism is a concept largely and recently put into practice by our foreign trading partners against us. They are operating this as a market-salvation method. Of course, it is always cheaper to blame us for the problems than to invest in their own domestic development."

China's export sector largely relies on the country's cheap domestic labor force. If other countries were to adopt protectionist measures aimed at Chinese exports, it would drastically alter China's economy and possibly put millions of people out of work.

Li Jian, a researcher at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, says countries are following each other's example in declaring trade dispute cases against Chinese exports during such a condensed period of time. He says it is largely because these countries have domestic problems in their markets because of the global economy crisis.

While China's economy remained strong during the downturn, the government has to switch its strategy to maintain the continued development of the country's export industry.

"When entering a foreign market, overtaking it just by cheap prices and huge volumes is not the stable way. In the long term, developing a reputation with a good price-quality combination is always the key."

China's export strategy has proven to be a successful one in the past. But since China's membership in the World Trade Organization in 2001, its international standing in the global economy has greatly increased. This means China now has more responsibilities to sustain the balance of the global economy. To do that, it must make some changes in working with foreign markets and improve its old export strategy in line with its new international image.

From China Drive, I'm Huang Rui.