"There is a possibility of trade protectionism getting more serious next year, because next year we expect the global market might contract," Chen told a news conference of BRICs trade ministers in Geneva.
"If we look at countries around us, for example Europe and the United States, we're all going to face difficulties brought about by these two areas."
Chen was speaking on the eve of the World Trade Organization's ministerial conference in Geneva, an event held every two years, and after China announced it would slap duties on large cars and SUVs imported from the United States. He did not refer to that case.
"China has made a promise to free trade and we will honour our words. We have said we will not abuse trade remedy measures. At the same time we do not fear others using trade remedies or protectionism. We will use the rules enshrined in the WTO's multilateralism system to protect ourselves," Chen said.
The BRICs group comprises the rapidly growing emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Chen said China's own exports had been falling by about two percent per month for the last three months, mainly due to the contraction in European and U.S. markets.
"Therefore next year we will continue to make efforts to stabilise our exports and at the same time stand against protectionism by expanding our imports continuously in order to achieve a balanced trade," he said.
"In actual fact this year the total trade of China might already be quite balanced. In actual fact in the past few months the RMB (yuan) exchange rate has suffered some decrease in terms of the exchange rate for forward trade." (Reuters)
