China : Foreign Trade Reform Book

Since the launching of the reform program in 1979, the promotion of external trade has been central to China ' s efforts to modernize its economy. The policy has met with remarkable success, with exports having increased ninefold and imports more than sevenfold over the period. This has been accompanied by rapid changes in the institutional support system for foreign trade and in the incentive framework. But China has a long wait to go in replacing direct administrative intervention with indirect price-based instruments for managing its trade policy, and much is still unclear about the functioning of China ' s trade regime. Historically, China ' s approach to trade policy has been aimed at achieving export growth for the sake of generating foreign exchange without sufficient regard to its costs, while import policy has featured controls to regulate import growth. Although, as a result of the " open-door " policies of the 1980s, decisions concerning exports have become increasingly determined by the market rather than administrative flat, reform of the import regime has, by comparison, remained neglected and is now taking on some urgency. The report addresses key issues in import as well as export policy for accelerating the country ' s transformation into a market based economy. Four important conclusion emerged. First, while the role of planning in China ' s foreign trade sector has been declining, several problems of transition remain. Second, the report finds that despite a complex array of tariff and nontariff barriers to trade, China has become a relatively open economy, with evidence of considerable tariff redundancy. Third, notwithstanding the diminishing reliance on exportplanning, the Chinese government has been actively involved in export development. Finally, the success of China ' s continued reforms in the area of foreign trade depends on its ability to sustain a healthy rate of export growth.