China should facilitate regional trade and expand global use of renminbi, expert says

China's exports rose by 2.9 percent year-on-year in July, while imports fell by 5.7 percent, leading to a monthly trade surplus of 342.8 billion yuan ($51.45 billion), figures released by the General Administration of Customs showed on Monday.

The country's foreign trade outlook for the whole year is not optimistic, due to higher operational costs, loss of production orders and jobs and growing trade friction, said Wang Dongtang, deputy director-general of the Ministry of Commerce's Department of Foreign Trade.

Export growth in July was 1.6 percentage points higher than in the previous month, while the fall in imports increased from 2.3 percent in June.

"As external markets will not fundamentally improve for the rest of this year, China must speed up its restructuring of regional trade and value chains, including expanding the global use of its currency and facilitating regional trade through more free trade agreements and connectivity programs," said Yao Weiqun, vice-president of the Shanghai WTO Affairs Consultation Center.

Trade with the United States, China's second-biggest trade partner, fell by 4.8 percent year-on-year between January and July, while trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, its third-largest trade partner, declined by 2.2 percent.

Trade with the European Union, China's biggest trade partner, climbed by 1.8 percent year-on-year in the first seven months, the GAC data showed.

Song Ge, deputy general manager of Guangzhou Bosma Optoelectronic Technology Co, an optical products manufacturer in Guangdong province, said that although the company set an export target of $14 million this year, it only reached 42 percent of that amount during the first seven months.

"This is because market orders from the EU declined and our latest telescope products in the US didn't sell as well as we expected earlier this year," said Song.

Song hoped the company could reach its annual export goal by the end of the year, since sales are expected to pick up in the fourth quarter, a busy sales season for developed markets.