Vice Premier urges efforts to improve foreign trade

BEIJING -- Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang on Thursday urged greater efforts to improve foreign trade.

Wang said at a teleconference that China's foreign trade fundamentals have not changed despite mounting downward pressures this year.

Tepid global demand and slowing domestic economy have dealt a blow to China's foreign trade. It fell 7 percent year on year in 2015, with exports down 1.8 percent and imports down 13.2 percent.

However, the March data provided some relief. Exports last month surged 18.7 percent year on year, the first increase since December, compared with falls of 20.6 percent in February and 6.6 percent in January. Imports dipped 1.7 percent, an improvement from February's 8-percent drop.

The government will use a combination of fiscal, financial and land policies to encourage processing trade to relocate to the central and western regions, Wang said.

The government will encourage enterprises to build their brands and expand their marketing networks and will support the development of cross-border e-commerce industry, he said.

More efforts should be made to improve foreign trade environment, promote nationwide integrated cargo-clearance system and strengthen international cooperation on production capacity, Wang added.