Page:China and WTO White Paper 2018.pdf/14

 2. Foreign trade development benefiting the world

Since China's entry into the WTO, China's foreign trade has maintained sustained development, benefiting more than 1.3 billion Chinese and other peoples across the world.

Confronted with unprecedented difficulties and challenges including the global financial crisis in 2008, China has taken effective measures to stabilize and revitalize its foreign trade. According to WTO statistics, China's imports accounted for 10.2 percent of the world total merchandise import in 2017, and its exports 12.8 percent, making China a major trade partner of more than 120 countries and regions. China's exports have provided high-quality and inexpensive products to businesses and people around the world. From 2001 to 2017, China's imports increased by an annual average of 13.5 percent, 6.9 percentage points higher than the global average; and China has become the world's second largest importer. Since 2009, China has been the largest export market for the LDCs, and absorbed 20 percent of their exports.

China's services imports increased from USD39.3 billion in 2001 to USD467.6 billion in 2017, up by an annual average of 16.7 percent, and accounting for nearly 10 percent of the world total. Since 2013, China has been the world's second largest service importer, making significant contributions to stimulating consumption, creating jobs and boosting economic growth in the exporting countries. Taking tourism services as an example, China has been the world's largest source of outbound tourists for many years in a row. In 2017, outbound tourist trips made by Chinese citizens exceeded 130 million person-times, generating USD115.29 billion of overseas tourism spending.

China's innovation in trade models has also given new impetus to world trade growth. Cross-border e-commerce and other new types and modes of foreign trade have flourished in China, providing an ever-expanding market to its trading partners. In 2017, the value of imported and exported goods in cross-border e-commerce checked and released by China Customs totaled RMB90.24 billion, up by 80.6 percent on yearly basis, of which imports stood at RMB56.59 billion, up by 120 percent compared with the previous year.

3. Two-way investment benefiting all countries

China has been promoting the establishment of a fair, equitable and transparent system of international trade and investment rules to boost the orderly flow of production factors, efficient resources allocation and full market integration.

China has proactively attracted foreign institutions and individuals to invest and develop in China. Since 1992, China has consistently topped the list of FDI recipients among developing countries for 26 years consecutively. After China's accession to the WTO, its FDI increased from USD46.88 billion in 2001 to USD136.32 billion in 2017,