Since 2001, U.S. soybean exports to China saw an explosive growth and the United States was once the primary supplier of soybeans to China.

　　An annual report on U.S. exports to China released by the U.S.-China Business Council earlier this year stated that China remains an important market for American companies, supporting nearly a million jobs in the United States.

　　This photo shows the pet pavilion set up by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) at the seventh China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Chen Aiping)

　　China has institutionalized its commitment to expanding imports through concrete actions over the past years. Among them were measures like cutting import duties, optimizing the list of cross-border e-commerce retail imports and launching the annual China International Import Expo (CIIE) in 2018. At the seventh CIIE held last month, deals worth 80.01 billion dollars were inked.

　　Last year, China's imports of consumer goods totaled 1.95 trillion yuan, up 1.2 percent from the previous year, reflecting the nation's increasing appetite for high-quality products to meet diverse consumer demands.

　　Wei believes that an increased proportion of consumer goods in China's total imports will bring more benefits to exporting countries.

　　ERECT BARRIERS OR OPEN WIDER TO ALL?

　　Huo criticized the attempt to distort a surplus of products as “overcapacity“ since a perfect supply-demand equilibrium is non-existent in reality.

　　After China's WTO accession, the production capacity of mature industries such as steel, automobiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals in Europe and the United States was constantly transferred to China.