Discussions between China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai were held during the 29th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders’ Meeting, after the meeting between the heads of state of China and the US. The two trade officials discussed bilateral economic and trade issues as well as multilateral and regional trade cooperation, said Shu Jueting, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Commerce of China on the 24th. “We will implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state at their meeting, and we hope that the United States will work with China to push bilateral economic and trade cooperation back on the path of steady and sound development,” the spokesperson added.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasted on the 22nd that China’s economy will grow at 3.2% in 2022, then rise by 4.4% for the next two years as China’s growth remains under pressure following an “impressive” recovery from the pandemic’s initial impact.
The value of China’s foreign trade amounted to US$4.79 trillion in the first ten months of 2022, up 9.5% year-on-year, according to the General Administration of Customs of China. Among that, China’s imports grew 5.2% to US$2.06 trillion. In the meantime, the total trade value between China and the United States grew 6.8% year-on-year to US$ 582.54 billion. Moreover, in the first ten months of 2022, China’s agricultural imports and exports totaled US$ 273.77 billion, up 10.4% year-on-year.
There is a clear sign that China is trying to optimize its COVID-19 control measures to minimize their impact on the economy and people’s daily life. Though there are still conflicts between those movements, for instance, public transportations are no longer requesting 48 hours COVID test though most office buildings and shopping malls are still asking for it.
Provinces such as Guangdong (near Hong Kong) and Zhejiang (surrounding Shanghai) stepped further to ease the COVID control measures and they no longer organize vast COVID tests, and even the confirmed cases are allowed to stay at home for self-quarantine. Unless big surprises, we can possibly put COVID behind us soon.
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