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China has overtaken the United States as the world's largest exporter of a broad category of electronic goods including computers, mobile phones and digital cameras, the OECD said Monday

本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛The report by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development marks a milestone in China's diversification from low-tech textile sweatshops into sophisticated electronics factories.

Chinese exports of information and communications technology goods rose by 46 percent year-on-year to US$180 billion in 2004, outstripping U.S. exports of US$149 billion, 12 percent higher than the previous year.

China's positive trade balance in tech products almost tripled to US$31 billion last year from US$12 billion in 2003. The country first became a net exporter of such goods just a year before that, recording a 2002 surplus of US$3 billion.

Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, the report's author, said it highlighted China's steady rise up the value chain -- from televisions, stereos and other low-margin electronic goods to expensive hi-tech equipment.

China's booming trade surplus in PCs and laptops stood at US$45.4 billion last year, the new data showed, and its overall trade in ICT goods has grown an average 38 percent per year since 1996. China also overtook Japan as the main exporter of such goods to the United States last year.

European and U.S. mobile phone and PC producers have been investing heavily in China, and Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. acquired the PC operations of International Business Machines Corp. for US$1.75 billion in May.

China still depends heavily on imports for the microchips and circuit-board components it needs to feed its booming hardware manufacturing industry, the OECD report said. China's overall trade deficit in components swelled to nearly US$62 billion last year.

But Europe and the United States are seeing their share of that parts trade shrinking, the report added, and America now enjoys only a "very small surplus" in components.

"To manufacture laptops and advanced mobile phones, China previously relied on electronic components, such as computer chips, imported from the EU and United States," it said.

These are now being increasingly sourced from countries like Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Malaysia, which all have major tech goods trade surpluses with China as a result.更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
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