China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Friday the country's foreign trade will continue to register robust growth and is expected to rise 15 percent to hit 2 trillion U.S.dollars in 2007.

Liu Haiquan, an MOC official said conditions for foreign trade will be favorable as well as will present challenges.

Although China's trade surplus continues to post record highs the rates of growth of imports and exports narrowed this year, said the MOC report.

Imports from major trading partners such as the United States and Japan have also jumped sharply, said the report.

Backed by steady and rapid economic development and booming international demand, the combined trade volume in 2006 is very likely to post big gains for the fifth straight year, said Li Yushi, deputy director of the International Economic and Trade Institute under the MOC.

Customs figures show foreign trade volume in the first nine months totaled 1.2726 trillion U.S.dollars, an increase of 24.3 year-on-year.

MOC said total trade volume is expected to jump 20 percent to hit 1.7 trillion U.S.dollars by the end of the year, with exports reaching 960 billion U.S. dollars and imports hitting810 billion U.S.dollars.

A WTO forecast shows China will overtake Germany as the second largest trader in the world in 2007.

The MOC report also warned that protectionism and trade friction will be unavoidable while noting that the exports volume of private companies has exceeded that of state-owned firms.

Source: Xinhua