China's foreign trade drops by 14% to 2 trillion dollars in 2009.

10/1 Tass 28

BEIJING, January 10 (Itar-Tass) -- China's foreign trade decreased by
13.9 percent to 2.21 trillion U.S. dollars in 2009, the country's General
Administration of Customs said on Sunday.
The global financial crisis had a heavy impact on the country's
various foreign trade indicators in 2009, the administration said. For
instance, China's foreign trade surplus dropped by 34.2 percent to 196.1
billion U.S. dollars in the period under review. The country's export
decreased by 16 percent, as compared to 2008, and stood at 1.2 trillion
U.S. dollars, while import went down by 11.2 percent to 1.01 trillion U.S.
dollars.
The decline of the key foreign trade indices started at the end of
2008 due to the slump in the global economy and decrease of the demand on
the U.S. market.
At the end of May 2009, the Chinese government worked out several
export-boosting measures to minimise the negative impact of the crisis on
the country's foreign trade.
As a result, the environment has became improving since November. At
the same time, there was no growth in the country's foreign trade
indicators upon the results of 2009.
At the beginning of December, the Chinese government gathered for the
economic conference to put forth the task to continue work aimed at the
restoration of the Chinese export positions and promotion of its
well-balanced foreign trade.
-0-usn/yer