The nation overtook Italy and the Netherlands in foreign trade, becoming the world's seventh largest trade partner last year.

Its exports ranked seventh last year, up from ninth in 1999, while imports ranked eighth, up from 10th, according to the latest statistics from World Trade Organization (WTO), as quoted by the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Steady economic growth and domestic demand will continue to fuel China's foreign trade this year.

Analysts said Monday that China's entry into the WTO, expected to happen later this year, will spur on the momentum.

However, China is still far from a world trade power. Its share of global trade is a far cry from the share of developed countries whose population is a lot less than that of China, they said.

And they said high-tech and value-added exports in China's foreign trade will take time to grow.

The United States is still the largest trade partner, followed by Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, China, Italy, China's Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region joined the top 10 foreign trade giants for the first time amid robust economic growth.

China traded US$474.3 billion worth of products and services with other countries and regions last year, according to statistics from GAC.

That's an increase of 31.5 percent on 1999, and compares with an average annual increase of 13.4 percent over the last two decades.

Booms in most of the world's economies and especially those of China's 10 major trade partners have helped to boost the country's exports by providing markets for its products.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government's policies to stimulate domestic demand have also served to push up China's imports and exports.

"China's imminent entry into the WTO later this year will further promote our trade with the outside world," said Zhang Jikang, an economist of Fudan University.

The WTO accession will help expand the exporting of China's processing and other labor-intensive products, while a steady drop in tariffs and duties will stimulate more imports into China, said Zhang.

However, the nation still lags behind developed countries in terms of trade volume, analysts said. For example, France and the United Kingdom, each with a population of less than 60 million, secured US$590.5 billion and US$589.3 billion in foreign trade respectively, US$200 billion more than China's foreign trade last year.

(China Daily 04/10/2001)