MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China's trade surplus almost doubles in four months of 2007

China's April trade surplus more than doubled from March, the government said Friday, as a mission on a US tour signed billion-dollar deals in a bid to narrow the trade gap.

Last month Beijing saw its trade surplus reach 16.9 billion US dollars, up from 6.9 billion US dollars the month before, the Xinhua news agency reported Friday. "Many of the engines of China's exports such as textile, clothing and steel are facing overcapacity on their home turf" said Zhang Yansheng, an economist with the National Development and Reform Commission. "Companies in these sectors must expand into overseas markets in order to survive" he was quoted by Xinhua as saying. The trade figures were reported ahead of a much-anticipated round in the Strategic Economic Dialogue between the two nations, to be held in Washington later this month with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as host. After a trade surplus of 15.9 billion US dollars in January and 23.6 billion US dollars in February, economists said what needed explanation was not why it had been so large in April, but rather why in March it had been so small. The most likely reason was that in March exports had been impacted by the abolishing of a series of tax incentives, they said. In the first four months of the year, the aggregate trade surplus reached 63.3 billion US dollars, Xinhua said. This was a rise of nearly 90% from the same period in 2006. April exports stood at 97.5 billion US dollars, an increase of 26.8% from the same month a year ago, while imports reached 80.6 billion US dollars, a rise of 21.3%, Xinhua said. As the customs announced another massive trade surplus, state media reported a Chinese business delegation was visiting the United States, and had so far signed deals worth 4.3 billion US dollars with local companies. The delegation could end up signing deals totaling about 16 billion US dollars, said the China Daily.