Container ships anchored in a dock at the Port of Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province. (Photo : Global Times)
Several provinces of China joined the central government in taking up emergency measures to bolster the export business, which has been lagging in its performance this year, the 21st Century Business Herald reported.
The report said that following in the footsteps of Guangdong, Sichuan and Hunan, the governments of Shandong, Tianjin, Hebei and Shaanxi have extended assistance to local exporters in August.
China's exports fell by about 8.9 percent year on year in July, the worst performance since Feb. 2014, as the export upturn in June proved to be short-lived.
Municipal governments were also upset by the worse export figures in July and August, usually a peak season for exports. Data by local exporters showed that exports of Wenzhou, a major export hub in Zhejiang Province, dropped 22.6 percent year on year to $760 million in July.
"Exports in July-August failed to meet expectations for the busy season," a report by the Wenzhou Bureau of Commerce said, adding that a decline in exports is possible in the second half, similar to the first half.
The exports of Shandong, another major exporting province, also declined 2.1 percent in July, following a slight drop of 0.9 percent in June, and exports of Jiangsu province slid 9.8 percent in the same month.
To strengthen exports, various provinces with large export industries have taken up measures to strengthen exports. Guangdong Province offered 5 million yuan ($786,700) worth of subsidies to foreign traders to stabilize foreign trade in late May.
"Those local measures are meant mainly to help exporters weather the difficult times by alleviating their burden, such as reducing fees," Li Jian, director of the foreign trade institute of the research institution of the Ministry of Finance, said. He pointed out that the basic problem lies in the sluggish external demand.
The report said that the foreign trade of 21 provinces declined after China's exports dropped 6.9 percent year on year in the first half.
"It will be rather difficult for the nation to attain 6 percent growth target for foreign trade this year," Li observed.
