China is holding a week-long China International Import Expo, or CIIE, in Shanghai, starting today. President Xi Jinping said “CIIE is a major initiative by China to pro-actively open up its market to the world.” And, he noted “economic globalization is facing setbacks, multilateralism and the free trade system is under attack, factors of instability and uncertainty are numerous, and risks and obstacles are increasing.” That’s the usual rhetorics that China has been using to position itself as defender of free trade.
Nevertheless, Xi also pledged to cut import taxes further and spend more on foreign goods and services. He said China’s goods import will exceed USD 30T over the next 15 years. Meanwhile, Services import will exceed USD 10T. The figure on goods was somewhat raised from Xi’s prior promise of USD 24T. But the fact is, USD 30T over 15 years means only USD 2T per annum, which Chin has already nearly met back in 2013 and 2014. After a dip to USD 1.6T in 2016, import has already bounced back to USD 1.8T in 2017. So, Xi’s target is not that ambitious.
