Chinese farm trade deficit seen halving

China's trade deficit in farm products is likely to halve this year from 2006, helped by rising competitiveness of the country's agricultural products, the China Daily said on Wednesday. China's farm trade deficit may drop to $300-400 million from $960 million last year.
The paper quoted Wang Ming, researcher from government think-tank the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as saying. The country saw its first agricultural trade deficit of $4.66 billion in 2004, underscoring concerns over huge inflows of farm products following its entry into the World Trade Organisation three years earlier.
The academy's Li Zhou said China's farm trade volume would reach $70 billion this year, up 12 percent from 2006. China's farm products have become more competitive with more attention being paid to quality and there had been a more active response to anti-dumping measures, the newspaper said.