BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Friday played down suggestions that China is set to overtake Germany as the world's largest exporter.

    "Some key data on Germany's trade have yet to be released. Coupled with other factors, such as exchange rates, it's still early to say China will become the world's biggest exporter," Yao Jian said at a regular news briefing.

    China had a different trade structure from Germany as its exports were mainly labor-intensive goods, which suffered less from the economic downturn, Yao said.

    Machine products were an important constituent of Germany's exports. Though the downturn dampened demand for them last year, with the global economy picking up, orders were likely to rise, Yao said.

    He said China should raise the added value of its exports, and strengthen innovation and branding to establish itself as a strong trade power.

    On Sunday, figures released by the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed China's total exports in 2009 stood at 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars, down 16 percent from 2008.

    Germany, which had been since 2002 holding the title as the world's largest exporter by value, is yet to reveal its 2009 figures.

    But the BGA, the Federation of German Wholesale and Foreign Trade, has forecast Germany's exports in 2009 might fall 18 percent to 816 billion euros (1.18 trillion U.S. dollars).

China might become top world exporter, but weakness remains

    BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- China will probably overtake Germany to become the world's largest exporter though its exports in 2009 had fallen 16 percent from a year earlier, according to figures released Sunday by the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

    But Chinese experts and officials said the country was far from being a real trade power if measured by exports structure, technological innovation and industry competitiveness.  Full story