BEIJING, July 11 -- China's trade surplus showed strong growth in the first half of this year, adding pressure not only on China but also its trade partners to adjust their economies.

    The trade surplus soared to $112.5 billion, up 84 percent from a year earlier, according to statistics released on Tuesday by the General Administration of Customs.

    Although the remarkable growth was largely attributed to the fact that many Chinese exporters rushed to sell abroad as much as possible before lowered export tax rebate rates took effect in July, it is expected to deepen the tension between China and some of its major trade partners.

    But the United States and the European Union also need to adjust their domestic economies to help rebalance global trade, said Mei Xinyu, a senior trade researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

    "In this era of globalization, China's big trade surplus and trade deficits of developed countries, in particular the US, are actually the two sides of the same global economic imbalance," he said.

    Mei said China's fast-growing exports are driven in part by the demand of developed countries and it requires not only China's efforts but also those of developed countries to achieve a new balance.

    "If the US fails to address its 'low savings, high consumption' problem at home, it will be hard for China and other Asian countries to absorb the trade surplus," he said.

    Liang Hong, an economist with Goldman Sachs Asia Economics Research Group, said this level of trade surplus is unprecedented for China or any other major economy in the world.

    Liang expects the trade surplus to account for about 8 percent of gross domestic product in the first half of 2007, up from 6.3 percent during the same period last year.

    The government has adopted a number of methods, such as levying export taxes and cutting export tax rebates, to reduce the widening trade surplus.

    (Source: China Daily)