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China has published a strategy of boosting electronic and mechanical imports during the 12th Five-year Plan period (2011-2015) to improve its innovation competence and ease the trade tension with developed markets.
This is the first specific concrete step toward a more balanced foreign trade policy that attaches the same, if not more, importance to imports as exports. China used to send business delegations to European and the United States when trade frictions increased over China's massive trade surplus with them.
But the purpose of the new strategy goes far beyond easing trade friction. It is in China's own interest to Import more advanced products and technologies in the electronic and mechanical sector in the sense of facilitating China's economic restructuring, according to a statement jointly issued by eight ministries relevant to foreign trade.
Electronic and mechanical products have been playing a major role in China's total imports mix. The imports under this category have grown by 19 percent since China joined World Trade Organization in 2001. In 2010, 47 percent of China's imports are electronic and mechanical products.
However, technically the level of the imports needs to be improved and more efforts should be made to further innovation based on imported technologies, according to the document.
Given that, imports of equipment and technologies that can contribute to the development of China's emerging strategic industries, such as new energy, biotechnology, new materials, environmental protection and energy conservation, will be particularly encouraged.
Fiscal, financial and tax policies will give incentives to enterprises to step up research and development investment on technological progress based on imports.
However, the strong interest of the buyer has met reluctance or even resistance from the sellers, mostly in the United States and Europe. The concern for national security and intellectual property protection are the two pretexts that have long been used by the two top trading partners of China for their strict restriction on hi-tech exports to China.
A majority of China's trade surplus has been generated by its trade with the United States. The European Union has also complained its trade deficit with China. After China's repeatedly urged them to relax their restriction on hi-tech exports, they have also committed to reviewing their policies, particularly after the global financial crisis of 2008. However, no progress has been made so far.
In addition to the call for the easing of the restriction, the document proposes to promote the hi-tech trade and cooperation systems with dozens of countries and better protect the intellectual property rights. The mechanism for the intellectual property disputes settlements on the overseas market will be established.
So far the European Union is the largest source of China's tech imports. In 2009, China set up its first overseas IP service desk in Germany.
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