China' Commerce Minister Bo Xilai is facing a task that his predecessors has never encountered. Former commerce ministers usually concentrated on the international markets, but Bo has to spend much of his time balancing imports and exports.

At a conference on the commerce sector last week, reducing the huge trade surplus was the main item on the agenda for 2007. China's trade surplus increased more than 74 percent year-on-year to $177.5 billion in 2006.

Bo said an overly-large trade surplus was not good for China's sustained economic growth; therefore, the government would reduce exports of low-value-added products and increase imports.

It marks a change in China's export-encouraging trade policy to a more balanced one.

Although the subject of reaching a balance in trade has been frequently talked about for more than a year, this is the first time it has been given such serious attention.

Some Chinese economists argue "China is in fact not the real source of the global trade imbalance". It also reflects the high savings rate and comparatively low level of consumer spending in China compared to the low savings rate and high spending in the United States.

"Our trade partners, such as the United States and the European Union, should also shoulder the corresponding responsibilities," said Mei Xinyu, an expert at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, the research institute under the commerce ministry.

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