Beijing/Shanghai Nov 5 (PTI) Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Wednesday called for embracing free markets and pledged to open China's consumer market after Beijing and Washington reached a trade deal, raising expectations of normalcy in the restoration of global supply chains.

“At a time when the world economy is slowing down and international disputes are intensifying, we must all the more adhere to equal and mutually beneficial cooperation, embrace free markets and free trade, and resolve cross-border contradictions and problems through joint development,” Li said.

He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the eighth China International Import Expo (CIIE) and the Hongqiao International Economic Forum in Shanghai.

"China is willing to work with all parties to create an open and inclusive development environment, enhance the level of trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, ensure the stability and smooth operation of global industrial and supply chains, and better gather momentum for economic development,” he said.

He said China’s economic scale in the next five years was projected to exceed 170 trillion yuan (USD 23.9 trillion).    China will steadfastly advance high-level opening-up to the outside world, he was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

His speech offering to open China more for imports came in the backdrop of an understanding reached between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump in South Korea last week to agree on the broad contours of a trade deal to end the tariff war between the two countries.

Ahead of the final agreement, China has agreed to lift the ban on the exports of rare earth metals - much needed for the US defence industry - and resume imports of US soybeans.

Trump signed an executive order to roll back 10 per cent of the “fentanyl tariffs” imposed on China. Both sides officially extended the tariff truce they had agreed on the “reciprocal tariffs” for one year.

Li visited pavilions set up by some US companies after the opening ceremony, sending a clear signal to American and global businesses that the Chinese market would still be fully open to them amid the de-escalation of the trade war between the world’s two largest economies, the Post reported.

Li, however, condemned the rise of tariffs in international trade without naming the US, noting that they had “seriously undermined international economic and trade rules and disrupted the normal operations of enterprises” in various countries.

China, which continued to be an export-dependent economy, grappled with slow growth of domestic consumption as the Chinese were reluctant to spend due to concerns over job prospects and a poor economic outlook.

This year's CIIE sets a new record in scale, featuring over 4,100 foreign exhibitors from more than 150 countries and regions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing in Beijing.

China will continue its effort of expanding and opening up so as to share the opportunities of China's mega market with the world, she said. PTI KJV ZH ZH

Free trade and market opening: China pledges expanded import access and to lift select export restrictions. Premier Li Qiang committed China to advance free markets and free trade by opening the domestic consumer market, expanding imports, promoting trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, ensuring supply chain stability, resuming specific imports and lifting certain export restrictions, and maintaining an extended tariff truce to reduce trade barriers and procedural frictions for foreign businesses.