ABSTRACT
The most symbolic feature of China's opening under the reform and liberalization policy has been the rapid advance of foreign trade. During the nineteen years of the Deng Xiaoping era foreign trade grew fifteenfold, with an average annual rate of growth of more than sixteen percent. In October 1984 the decision to reform the economic system was taken, and actual reform activities were begun in the local governmental and industrial fields. Broad new authority to use foreign currency was granted to provinces and large enterprises, with the result that control over imports was lost and deficits occurred. This chapter presents the top-ten products in China's trade in five-year intervals to 1995. It then presents a view of the large proportion of China's trade carried out under processing trade arrangements. The chapter also summarizes China's efforts to liberalize trade and investment with a view to gaining entry into the World Trade Organization.
