China's trade surplus soared 65 percent to US$186 billion in the first nine months of this year, Xinhua news agency reported today quoting China Customs.

Imports and exports totaled US$571 billion for the first three quarters of the year, growing 23.5 percent from a year earlier, the report said.

China will continue to have a sizeable trade surplus for some time due to its trade structure and shifts in global industry, Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said last month.

"China's surplus growth will slow with the implementation of a series of tightening measures," Gao told a press conference in Beijing. "But it takes time for the measures to yield results as most of them went into effect after July 1. We are watching what possibilities might arise," he said.

Since the end of last year, the government has introduced a raft of measures ranging from export rebate cuts to export tariff increases for many exports, especially those from the high polluting and high energy and resource-consuming sectors, said Gao.

(Shanghai Daily October 12, 2007)