China's trade surplus in April more than doubled the figure of March to US$16.88 billion, though the country's exports grew slower and imports rose faster over the past month, according to the General Administration of Customs.

But the figure was still a drastic decline from February's US$23.7 billion, the second-highest monthly level on record.

Zhang Yansheng, an economist with the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the seesawing monthly surplus figures have indicated the uncertainty in China's trade growth.

"But I don't think we could repudiate the functions of government macro-economic control intending to narrow surplus," he said.

China has used a package of industrial and taxation policies since last year to rein in exports of energy-and-resources-consuming products and to simultaneously facilitate imports of advanced equipment and technology.

The administration said the aggregate surplus for the first four months has reached 63.31 billion U.S. dollars, with the April exports growing at a slower 26.8 percent to US$97.45 billion and imports, at a faster 21.3 percent to US$80.57 billion.

But experts argue that the adjustment remains minute. The rising yuan which has appreciated 5.4 percent accumulatively to 7.6835 against one U.S. dollar since the 2005 exchange rate reform, coupled with high crude oil prices and rising local production costs, should theoretically put Chinese exports into an increasingly unfavorable position, they said.

Mei Xinyu, a trade expert with the Ministry of Commerce, attributed the robust exports to the brisk world market demand. Given that a lion's share of China's exports are made by foreign-invested processing companies, their production won't be easily affected by the rising yuan or changing production costs.

"Many of the engines of China's exports such as textile, clothing and steel are facing an overcapacity on home turf, which means companies of these sectors must expand their market aboard to survive," said Zhang Yansheng.

As a large percentage of China's exports are lower-value-added products whose demand are less sensitive to the price fluctuations, it is impossible to reduce the massive exports in a short period of time, he said.

"But there is a critical point to break the substantial expanding momentum in exports. It all depends on how far local manufacturers can go with a rising production cost," Zhang said.

Some economists have argued that the sharp rise in February and deep slump in March were caused by exporters delivering March orders in February in order to avoid losing out on export tax rebates.

The administration seemed optimistic of bringing down the politically sensitive surplus which has affected China's relations with a few trade partners.

It said that the newly added surplus in April which rose by 60.8 percent from US$10.5 billion last April has slowed down by 37.5 percentage points from the first quarter.

In the first four months, the country's export of machinery and electronic products reached US$202 billion, up 27.4 percent, accounting for 57.8 percent of the total exports.

Meanwhile, imports of industrial products hit US$216.5 billion, up 19.1 percent, taking up 75.6 percent of the import total.

The European Union remained the country's top trading partner, seeing its trade with China reach US$103.6 billion in the first four months of 2007, up 29.5 percent from the same period of last year, the customs data show.

The United States was second with trade volume reaching US$91.87 billion, followed by Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

A Chinese business delegation has signed deals worth US$4.3 billion with US firms, which analysts say might ease the country's rising trade surplus.

In a telephone conversation with his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush, President Hu Jintao said he believes that with concerted efforts by both sides, positive achievement will be scored in the upcoming second round of strategic economic dialogue between the two countries.