China's trade in mechanical and electrical products totaled US$75.34 billion in January, down 28.4 percent year-on-year, according to an industry meeting held Thursday.

Exports fell 20.9 percent to US$49.14 billion, according to statistics Xinhua obtained from the meeting held here by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC). Imports slumped 39.3 percent to US$26.2 billion.

Mechanical and electrical products, together with other high-tech products, account for more than half of China's foreign trade, Vice Commerce Minister Jiang Yaoping told the meeting.

Those products also generate more than 60 percent of China's annual trade growth, playing a key part in keeping foreign trade stable, he said.

The MOC will act to boost mechanical and electrical exports and expand imports of advanced technology, equipment and key components this year, said Zhang Ji, an MOC official in charge of the mechanical, electrical and high-tech industry.

Mechanical and electrical exports rose 17.3 percent year-on-year in 2008, but an MOC survey found that these products would face difficulties this year as the global financial crisis took its toll.

Nearly 60 percent of the country's mechanical and electrical exports go to the United States, the Europe Union and Japan, which have been hard hit by the financial and economic tumult.

China raised export tax rebate rates on some mechanical and electrical products on Jan. 1. For instance, rebate rates for industrial robots and inertial aviation navigation systems rose to 17 percent, from 13 percent and 14 percent respectively.

(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2009)