China Plans to Increase Imports, Explore E-Commerce, Assistant Commerce Minister Says

At a recent Beijing trade conference, Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce Ren Hongbin said that the country plans to “enhance the quality of foreign trade” to steer out of China’s “complicated and severe” trade environment, according to a March 19 press release from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. Ren introduced a broad 10-step plan to achieve this, according to the release, which includes expanding imports, promoting “high quality development of foreign trade” and increasing “structural reform of foreign trade.” Ren also suggested supporting and exploring “new modes of trade,” such as “cross-border e-commerce.”