China did not lose its advantages in foreign trade despite global downturn and could retain foreign trade level above the global average once global economy recovered, a senior Chinese official said on Saturday.

Yi Xiaozhun, vice commerce minister, was speaking at the Global Think Tank Summit that ended Saturday in Beijing.

Though China's foreign trade would not rise sharply as it did in the past few years, the country did not lose its foreign trade advantages thanks to policies to stimulate domestic demands, Yi said.

He said China had been diversifying foreign trade and reported increased trade with countries in Africa, Middle East, middle Asia and Latin America.

Yi also called for halt on protectionism, saying that protectionism had been picking up and about 40 percent of anti-dumping cases and 70 percent of anti-subsidy cases targeted China.

He called for pushing forward the Doha round negotiation, which he believed was key in fighting against protectionism.

(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2009)