China's accelerating development of services trade benefits global economy

NEW ENGINE FOR GROWTH

In recent years, trade in services has become increasingly important and dynamic in international trade, and China's services trade has particularly seen rapid growth.

Since 2012, China's services trade has grown at an average annual rate of some 7.8 percent, higher than the global growth rate, according to China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

Services trade in China totaled over 5.4 trillion yuan ($775.6 billion) in 2019, ranking the second in the world for six consecutive years, the MOC said.

Trade in services has become a new supporting point for China's economic stability and a new engine for its development of foreign trade under the new circumstances, said An Yuhua, a professor of finance with South Korea's Sungkyunkwan University.

China has a huge market and abundant imported products, An said, adding that expanding trade in services can help achieve economic complementarity and mutual benefits between China and other parts of the world.

With a ravaging pandemic and a reeling world economy, international demand has been shrinking substantially, and global trade now faces a grim situation.

In April, the World Trade Organization warned that global trade is expected to fall by 13-32 percent in 2020 as the pandemic disrupts economic activity and life around the world.

Douglas McWilliams, deputy chairman of Centre for Economics and Business Research, said that before the pandemic hit the world, global trade in services grew faster than trade in goods.

However, in the post-pandemic era, with an increasing proportion of the service industry in the global economy and the vigorous development of digital trade in services driven by technological advancement, the share of services trade in global trade will continue to increase, McWilliams said.

An said that trade in goods has been greatly restricted as the pandemic has not been effectively controlled around the world, but services trade industries such as communications, finance, entertainment and culture may benefit from opportunities created by the pandemic, and grow rapidly with broad prospects.