Assessing Chinese Trade: the Benefit and Cost Analysis

Recently, China's rapid growth in foreign trade results in many discussions throughout the world; and even causes unease and anxiety for countries like US and EU. How to assess special situation of China's trade attracts widely academic attention. Using update data from China's National Statistical Bureau, WTO and the UN Commodity Trade Statistics Database, the author closely examines the specific benefits and costs brought by China's rapid growth in foreign trade. The paper comes up with the conclusion that: (1) China's growth in trade is based on heavy costs and left numerous unsolved problems; (2) China's efforts to promote trade growth are an unthankful task.