Trucks are busy transporting containers at a container terminal of the Shanghai Port December 9, 2004. China's foreign trade volume exceeded the US$1 trillion mark by the end of November.

China's total foreign trade volume in the first 11 months of this year passed 1 trillion US dollars, the General Administration of Customs said Thursday.

It is the first time China's foreign trade has reached such a high level and the General Administration of Customs called it a "milestone."

From January to November, China's total value of imports and exports reached 1.038 trillion US dollars, up 36.5 percent from the same period last year.

Imports and exports both surpassed 500 billion US dollars, with a trade surplus of 20.84 billion US dollars.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce said China still lags behind other major economies of the world in terms of the quality of foreign trade.

"China has been moving upward in the world charter of foreign trade volume, possible to the third position this year," said Chong Quan, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce. "China is a big player in the world in terms of foreign trade, but not a strong player."

The per capita foreign trade volume for China is less than 850 US dollars, much lower than the world average of about 2,400 US dollars, he said.

China needs to sharpen the competitive edge of its export products and improve its foreign trade structure, Chong said.

China's foreign trade volume took off after it began opening to outside world and adopted the reform policy two decades ago. Its foreign trade volume doubled three years after it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

The surge in China's foreign trade volume has fueled China's fast economic growth, created more jobs and brought a large amount of foreign exchange reserves for the country which reached 540 billion US dollars last October. So far, there are about 80 million personnel who are engaged in foreign trade.

Over the past several years, China's imports from its neighbors, the United States and the European Union have recorded double-digit growth.

In 2003, China's imports from the United States rose 24 percent, from Japan 39 percent, from the Republic of Korea 51 percent, from the European Union 38 percent and from Southeast Asia 52 percent.

But China is facing the pressure of trade disputes. The United States and some other trading partners have accused China of dumping and neglecting the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR).

Chong pledged China will step up the protection of IPR and handle trade disputes in accordance with rules of the WTO.