HONG KONG China's trade surplus swelled to a record $12.01 billion last month, the government reported Thursday, as U.S. and European retailers bought more Chinese-made toys, televisions and computers in the run-up to Christmas.
 
The surplus widened from $7.56 billion in September as exports jumped 29.7 percent from a year earlier, outpacing a 23.4 percent gain in imports, the customs bureau said on its Web site.
 
A ballooning surplus may strengthen President George W. Bush's case for China to allow the yuan to strengthen when he meets his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, for talks in Beijing on Nov. 20. Lawmakers and manufacturers in the United States say that Chinese factories have an unfair competitive advantage because the yuan's value is kept artificially low.
 
"China's trade surplus will remain a sticking point between China and the U.S.," said Chen Xingdong, the chief China economist at BNP Paribas Peregrine Securities in Beijing. "It's hard to close the trade gap because there's very little China can buy from abroad that it doesn't already make."
 
Exports amounted to $68.1 billion and imports totaled $56.1 billion, the customs bureau said.
 
What China wants to import - raw materials like oil and products with "high technological content" - it often finds difficult to obtain, Chen said.
 
Cnooc, the largest Chinese offshore oil producer, dropped a bid for Unocal, the U.S. oil company based in El Segundo, California, in August because of opposition from U.S. lawmakers. China has also been unsuccessful in pressing the European Union to lift a ban on arm sales that was imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
 
The U.S. trade deficit with China was $162 billion last year and will probably rise above $200 billion this year, according to U.S. government figures. Senators Charles Schumer, a Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a Republican, are threatening to reintroduce legislation placing a 27.5 percent tariff on all Chinese goods unless the Chinese government moves faster on currency reform.
 
China on July 21 allowed its currency to appreciate for the first time in a decade, revaluing the yuan by 2.1 percent against the dollar and replacing a fixed link to the U.S. currency with a more flexible link to a basket of currencies. Since the revaluation, the yuan has gained about 0.3 percent against the dollar.
 
Bush said Tuesday that he would press China's leaders to allow the market to determine the value of the yuan, a move he said would benefit the world economy. He called the July revaluation "the beginnings of a market-based currency."
 
China's trade surplus for the first 10 months of the year rose to $80.4 billion from $11.1 billion for the same 2004 period. Exports in the first 10 months rose to $614.5 billion and imports grew to $534.1 billion, according to Thursday's statement.
 
China's Commerce Ministry said Oct. 29 that it expected the trade surplus to almost triple to $90 billion this year, from $32 billion in 2004.
 
In the United States, a congressionally appointed panel on Wednesday called the yuan revaluation an "extremely limited step" and said that Congress should consider tariffs against Chinese imports. It urged lawmakers to file a complaint to the World Trade Organization unless China revalues the yuan by at least a quarter.
 
Such measures, however, would hamper global growth and trade without helping the U.S. economy, executives and economists say.
 
"The American administration is making a major mistake, trying to pressure the Chinese," said Steve Forbes, chief executive of Forbes, publisher of Forbes Magazine. "I wish we'd back off."
 
 HONG KONG China's trade surplus swelled to a record $12.01 billion last month, the government reported Thursday, as U.S. and European retailers bought more Chinese-made toys, televisions and computers in the run-up to Christmas.
 
The surplus widened from $7.56 billion in September as exports jumped 29.7 percent from a year earlier, outpacing a 23.4 percent gain in imports, the customs bureau said on its Web site.
 
A ballooning surplus may strengthen President George W. Bush's case for China to allow the yuan to strengthen when he meets his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, for talks in Beijing on Nov. 20. Lawmakers and manufacturers in the United States say that Chinese factories have an unfair competitive advantage because the yuan's value is kept artificially low.
 
"China's trade surplus will remain a sticking point between China and the U.S.," said Chen Xingdong, the chief China economist at BNP Paribas Peregrine Securities in Beijing. "It's hard to close the trade gap because there's very little China can buy from abroad that it doesn't already make."
 
Exports amounted to $68.1 billion and imports totaled $56.1 billion, the customs bureau said.
 
What China wants to import - raw materials like oil and products with "high technological content" - it often finds difficult to obtain, Chen said.
 
Cnooc, the largest Chinese offshore oil producer, dropped a bid for Unocal, the U.S. oil company based in El Segundo, California, in August because of opposition from U.S. lawmakers. China has also been unsuccessful in pressing the European Union to lift a ban on arm sales that was imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
 
The U.S. trade deficit with China was $162 billion last year and will probably rise above $200 billion this year, according to U.S. government figures. Senators Charles Schumer, a Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a Republican, are threatening to reintroduce legislation placing a 27.5 percent tariff on all Chinese goods unless the Chinese government moves faster on currency reform.
 
China on July 21 allowed its currency to appreciate for the first time in a decade, revaluing the yuan by 2.1 percent against the dollar and replacing a fixed link to the U.S. currency with a more flexible link to a basket of currencies. Since the revaluation, the yuan has gained about 0.3 percent against the dollar.
 
Bush said Tuesday that he would press China's leaders to allow the market to determine the value of the yuan, a move he said would benefit the world economy. He called the July revaluation "the beginnings of a market-based currency."
 
China's trade surplus for the first 10 months of the year rose to $80.4 billion from $11.1 billion for the same 2004 period. Exports in the first 10 months rose to $614.5 billion and imports grew to $534.1 billion, according to Thursday's statement.
 
China's Commerce Ministry said Oct. 29 that it expected the trade surplus to almost triple to $90 billion this year, from $32 billion in 2004.
 
In the United States, a congressionally appointed panel on Wednesday called the yuan revaluation an "extremely limited step" and said that Congress should consider tariffs against Chinese imports. It urged lawmakers to file a complaint to the World Trade Organization unless China revalues the yuan by at least a quarter.
 
Such measures, however, would hamper global growth and trade without helping the U.S. economy, executives and economists say.
 
"The American administration is making a major mistake, trying to pressure the Chinese," said Steve Forbes, chief executive of Forbes, publisher of Forbes Magazine. "I wish we'd back off."
 
 
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/10/bloomberg/sxchitrade.php#