The Canton Fair － officially known as the 115th China Import and Export Fair－is expected to draw 200,000 international buyers, an increase of more than 180,000 over the autumn session when there was a drop-off in numbers, said Liu Jianjun, deputy director-general of China Foreign Trade Center under the Ministry of Commerce.
Orders placed at China’s largest international trade fair, running from Tuesday 15 April to May 5, will probably stabilize in the shadow of recent sharp export declines.
Chinese exports unexpectedly fell 6.6 percent year-on-year in March from a year earlier, following an 18.1 percent reduction in February. Imports fell by the largest percentage in 13 months. China’s official target is a 7.5 percent increase in trade this year. The biannual trade gala is usually seen as a barometer for China’s economy.