With 30 years of rapid development since the reform and opening up, China's foreign trade volume in 2008 had reached 2.5616 trillion U.S. dollars, becoming the second largest in the world (of which export ranked the world's second, import the world's third). According to WTO statistics, China surpassed Germany becoming the world's biggest export powerhouse in the first half of 2009. Foreign Trade has played an important role in promoting China's sustained rapid economic development. It is showed by researches that exports has become one of the three economic growth stimulation “troikas" and contributed an average annual rate of 20% on economic growth. However, the outbreak of global financial and economic crisis has brought a serious impact on the development of China's foreign trade. This issue also raised a great discussion about China's foreign trade development pattern and even the overall economic development model as well. In the coming five to ten years, what kind of strategies and models should be taken for China's foreign trade development? How to innovate the foreign trade regulation and promotion mechanism? What is the successful experience in the foreign trade regulation and promotion of the world's major trading giants? What is the trend of processing trade in future? How to quickly overcome the adverse effects of the financial crisis on China's foreign trade development? How to optimize foreign trade structure and increase export added value? There’s an urgent need to explore these questions and answers. The expert forumof “Research on Improving the Foreign Trade Regulation and Promotion Mechanism” jointly sponsored by CRCFDI of UIBE and China Business Promotion Research Center was held on 26th, September, 2009 in UIBE. The participating experts had a lively discussion on these issues.

The expert forum was hosted by Professor Lu Jinyong, the director of CRCFDI, UIBE. Experts, scholars and officials participating in this forum mainly included: Huo Jianguo (President of China Chamber of Commerce of Import and Export of Foodstuffs,Native Produce & Animal By-Products<CCCFNA> ), Shen Danyang(Deputy Director  of General Office of Ministry of Commerce), Jia Guoyong(Deputy Director  of Trade Development Bureau of Ministry of Commerce), Gao Chengxing( Professor of Renmin University of China ), Li Gang(Research Fellow of Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation <CAITEC>), Li Jian(Research Fellow of CAITEC), Zhu Xinglong(Director  of Foreign Trade Department of Ministry of Commerce), Zhu Shuhai(Director of Trade Development Bureau of Ministry of Commerce), Liu Zhenhua(Director of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade<CCPIT>), Hua Xiaohong( Research Fellow of UIBE), Huang Xiaoling(Professor of UIBE), Yin Xiaopeng(Vice Professor of UIBE), Cui Weijie( Doctor of CAITEC), Yang Liqiang (Doctor of UIBE) , etc.The expert forum was part of the overall research work taken by UIBE, which services for the key research project called "Research on China's Foreign Trade Regulation and Promotion Mechanism" of the Ministry of Commerce in 2009. At the forum, the participating experts came up with a lot of valuable recommendations on improving the regulation and promotion mechanism of China's foreign trade. They not only provided ideas and perspectives for the strategies and models of China's foreign trade development in the post-crisis era, but also made a number of research findings to overcome the adverse effects brought about by financial crisis on the development of foreign trade.