Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region is trying to realize US$380 million in foreign trade this year, despite the impact of the RMB appreciation and March 14 riot in Lhasa, the regional capital.

In the first seven months, the autonomous region did US$200.96 million worth of foreign trade, a year-on-year rise of 4.08 percent but posting a drop of 56 percentage points in growth rate, said Ma Xiangcun, the regional commercial department head.

"Foreign trade has been an engine of Tibet's economic growth, but the import and export volumes were dramatically decreased after the Lhasa riot," he said.

Following the riot, Tibet tightened its border security, which in turn hurt border trade. The lowered export rebate rate and RMB appreciation had also contributed to the decrease, Ma said.

The region is now making preferential policies to encourage foreign trade, such as offering a tariff rebate on imported commodities for enterprises own use and awarding enterprises exporting their own products.

Tibet was trading with 55 countries and regions as of late 2007, a rise of 13 from the previous year. Nepal remained Tibet's largest trade partner. The volume of foreign trade between the two rose by 45.81 percent to hit US$262 million, accounting for 66.67 percent of Tibet's total foreign trade.

(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2008)