The forecast growth for the year ahead by China's top financial planning agency is far slower than the 22.5 percent growth achieved in 2011 when the nation's foreign trade hit $3.64 trillion, Xinhua said, citing customs data.
The prediction by Zhang Xiaoqiang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, was in line with an earlier commerce ministry prediction that foreign trade would grow 10 percent a year to hit $4.8 trillion by 2015.
"We expect more difficulties in foreign trade and the export situation will be grim in 2012, especially in the first half of the year," Xinhua quoted Zhang as saying at a forum here Saturday.
Chinese leaders have pledged to boost domestic demand to counter weakening overseas demand for its exports, a key driver of the country's economy.
Commerce Minister Chen Deming said last month China would move to "stabilise" its exports in 2012.
A Chinese government researcher also said last month that export growth would slow sharply this year, which could drag gross domestic product expansion below nine percent for the first time in more than a decade.