BEIJING: China exporters face rising risks of trade protectionism abroad even as Beijing makes fresh efforts to treat foreign and domestic investors equally, officials said on Tuesday.
The comments were made as data showed China's trade surplus swelled to its biggest since January 2009 hitting $31.7 billion in June and up 56.4 percent in the first half of the year at $68.9 billion - a week after the United States filed a trade dispute against Beijing at the World Trade Organisation.
"Currently the world economy is still grim and there are rising uncertainties and unstable factors," Zheng Yuesheng, spokesman of China's General Administration of Customs, told a news conference to release the June data.
"Chinese exporters face trade protectionism and the situation is very grim," he said, noting the largest number of Beijing's trade disputes last year were with the United States.
Trade tensions between the two biggest economies have risen recently, with the US last week filing a complaint with the WTO in a row over Chinese import duties on $3 billion worth of US-made autos.
A first half rise in exports to the US of 13.6 percent to $165.3 billion making it China's biggest customer is likely to inflame some Washington legislators who believe Beijing manipulates its currency to give exporters an unfair advantage.
Besides the latest trade spat with Washington, Beijing also faces criticism from the European Union its largest overall trading partner on the investment climate for foreign firms.
The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China published a survey in May that showed a growing number of foreign firms complaining about regulation bias towards foreign investment, raising the risk that some move operations to other countries.
But Vice Commerce Minister Wang Chao said on Tuesday his ministry would continue open the fledging service sector more widely to foreign firms and encourage international companies to invest in emerging and new energy industries.
"The Chinese government has done a lot of work in creating a fair investment environment in the country and we use the same rules when dealing with foreign firms and domestic ones," Chao told reporters.
"I think in the mid-to-longer term, China will continue to be a main destination that keeps attracting foreign investment," Wang said.
China drew in foreign direct investment (FDI) at a record rate in 2011, netting $116 billion versus $105.7 billion in 2010. The pace has slowed since as worries over Europe's debt crisis and a slowdown in China's economy have dampened investment appetite, with inflows easing to $47.1 billion in the first five months of 2012, down 1.9 percent on a year ago.
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