The focus of China's foreign trade policy next year should shift to promoting the upgrading of trade structure from stabilizing external demand, the State Information Center (SIC) has said.

Despite enhancing recovery in exports, the government should encourage companies to add more value on their products in an effort to promote the mid- and long-term structural adjustment of the country's foreign trade, the SIC said in a report Tuesday.

More efforts should be spent in encouraging exporters to set up their own brands and improving their marketing strategy, it said.

Although world economic recovery would help boost China's foreign trade next year, many challenges remained, including mounting protectionism, pressure on Renminbi appreciation and transformation of borrowing-based consumption pattern in the European Union and United States, it said.

As the world's second-largest exporter, China was facing "unprecedented" pressure from global trade protectionism, which would be a major factor affecting export recovery next year, the report said.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, as of the end of November, 19 countries and regions have launched 103 trade remedy investigations against Chinese products, with both the number of the cases and the money involved hitting record high.

The SIC expected China's exports and imports to rise six percent and 11 percent year on year respectively in 2010. It forecast the country's trade surplus to stand at US$184 billion next year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2009)