The 91st Session of Chinese Export Commodities Fair (Canton Fair), the first Fair after China's accession into the WTO, successfully concluded on April 30,2002. This session was held in the new circumstances that China's reform and opening-up have entered a new stage with wider and deeper involvement in international economic cooperation and competition. The Fair has achieved a complete success and unprecedented progresses by adopting the new arrangement by phases.
Characteristics of the 91st Session of Canton Fair are concluded as follows:
Ⅰ.  The number of visitors increases by a large margin, hitting the Fair's historical high.
120,576 visitors attend the fair, 18.9% and 7.8% higher than those of the 90th Session and the 89th Session respectively, marking a new historical record.
Numbers of visitors from the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South Asia achieve the highest growth. The number of the Middle East visitors has over doubled than that of the 90th Session and the growth rate of Russian visitors soars up by more than 30%.
The number of visitors from the United States increases by 40.5% over that of last session. In addition, the number of visitors from EU countries grows steadily and its growth rate of this session is similar to that of the total fair.
The number of visitors from HK SAR decreases slightly by 11.3% over that of last session. But it remains an integral part of the fair attendance and accounts for 27.9% of the total.
Ⅱ The business turnover at the 91st Session maintains a steady growth, reaching a historical high of the fair.
The business turnover at the 91st Session hits a record high of USD 16.85 billion, 26.7% increase over that of the 90th session. In general, the transactions of the 91st Session are characterized as follows:
   EU and the United States are among the largest trading partners of China. At this session, proportions of exports to these two regions in the total trade volume stand at 27.4% and 15.5% respectively. Exports to the United States are on the rise with a sharp increase of 64.1% over that of last session and exports to EU countries also see an increase. Exports to the Middle East markedly grow. Transactions with the Middle East countries account for 12.4% of the total trade value, rising by 160.6% from the 90th session. However, exports to Japan and HK SAR slow down, taking up only 5.8% and 9.5% in the total business turnover, lower than that of last session.
   As the increase of the booth number doubles, the number of the exhibiting enterprises rises from 4809 of last session to the present 8429, up by 75%. The state-owned foreign trade companies, which account for 53% of the total exhibitors, are still main force in trade transactions. Their turnovers take up 61.4% of the total. The private enterprises surge by 327% in number and achieve a substantial increase of 66.5% in trade volume than before, though there are only 141 of them, just 1.7% of the total exhibitors.
   The business turnover of enterprises from Guangdong province continues to top the list of business transactions of all provinces and cities, with the export volume keeping at 21.4% of total trade volume. According to statistics, trade volumes of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong greatly increase, while those of the middle and west regions of China are below the national average level.
   Textile and garment products become hot sellers at the fair. The trade volume reaches USD 2.65 billion, increasing by 21.6% and accounting for 15.7% of the total turnover. Light industrial products are also in great demand, with the highest transaction growth rate of 32.8% amidst the traditional bulk goods. Exports of mechanical and electronic products slightly increase while those of medicines, foodstuff, native produce and animal by-products go down by 5.9% partly because of EU restrictions on animal-based products from China.
   As more enterprises, especially manufacturing enterprises, are able to participate in the fair, competitions among commodities of general trade become up-grading, resulting in drops in prices. On the other hand, name brand and innovative products are quite in good sell with prices stably ascending.
Ⅲ The Fair provides better services for both visitors and exhibitors.
The Fair keeps on maintaining transaction order and protecting intellectual property rights. It improves rules and regulations on protection of intellectual property rights and as a result, the efficiency of case handling is greatly enhanced.  
The Fair brings electronic and traditional information services into full play to provide all-round information support for both the fair visitors and the exhibitors. A variety of information services are offered through the Fair's website, CD-ROM, SCAN Inquiry System and E-commerce Center.
The Fair takes the advantages of enlarged space by phases. More space is utilized for service and leisure, such as coffee shops, business centers, service offices, rest rooms and temporary warehouses. The Fair's environment and facilities are greatly improved, which contribute to the smooth operation of the Fair.
Facing the new situations and tasks after China's WTO accession, we shall, on one hand, retain our traditional advantages, and on the other hand, keep on reforming and innovating to find out better operational patterns of the Fair. It is believed that with service functions being diversified and the range of services expanded, the Canton Fair will be built into a dynamic trade exposition and a great event of international significance.

Chinese Export Commodities Fair