The rapid growth of China's foreign trade is now challenged by the uncertainties in the world economy as well as international trade protectionism, Assistant Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying was quoted by the Economic Daily as saying on Monday.

Fu made the remark when making a report at a conference on China's economic situation, according to the newspaper.

Although China's total foreign trade volume has become very large, the real benefit and profit gained by the country is still quite limited, he said.

China's trade growth mainly depends on the crude input of all kinds of resources, lacking core competitiveness and risk-proof capability, he said.

Less than 10 percent of China's export commodities are tagged with Chinese proprietary brands, Fu quoted an investigation by the Ministry as saying.

The booming of China's foreign trade is closely related to the world economy, but in the near future, the world economy will face big risks such as unstable energy prices and the remarkable fluctuation of the world's major currency prices, he said.

"No doubt these factors will affect the stable growth of China's foreign trade."

In recent years, international trade protectionism has been increasing, with some countries abusing trade protection measures and frequently setting trade and technological barriers, he said.

Since 1995 China has suffered the most anti-dumping investigations by other countries or regions in the world. In the first half of this year, China experienced trade disputes involving 10.7 billion US dollars, according to the Economic Daily.

In the first eight months this year, China's foreign trade volume grew 23.5 percent year on year to 891.1 billion US dollars, according to Chinese customs.

China's exports during the same period jumped 32 percent to 475.7 billion US dollars, while imports rose 14.9 percent to 415.5 billion US dollars.

Source: Xinhua