China’s commerce ministry counts high cost of courting trade deals
- Overseas trips go over budget for officials attending negotiations, international summits and trade promotions
- Beijing seeks to speed up deals to offset trade pressure from US
The Chinese commerce ministry spent more than 60 million yuan (US$8.7 million) on overseas trips last year, with trade tensions and international meetings driving up spending, according to a document released on Sunday.
Expenditure went about 13.06 million yuan over budget, to fund 591 delegations involving 2,086 people, mostly on visits to the US, European Union and Japan.
The ministry said its officials travelled overseas to coordinate visits by state leaders, as well as to attend multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations, international meetings and trade promotion events.
These included the G20 summit in Buenos Aires and the Apec summit in Papua New Guinea, as well as negotiations for key trade deals which Beijing has been trying to speed up to offset the escalating trade pressure from the US.
China has free trade agreements with 25 countries and regions, with another 13 deals under negotiation, which Beijing has portrayed as part of its commitment to further open up its economy in the face of growing opposition to free trade and tariff pressure from US President Donald Trump.