China should further tweak export taxes-economists

BEIJING, Sept 4 (Reuters) - China should further fine-tune its export tax regime to curb shipments of polluting products and grains and lend a hand to struggling labour-intensive industries, government economists said in remarks published on Thursday.

Softening external demand and a series of economic cooling measures brought annual economic growth down to 10.1 percent in the second quarter, from 11.9 percent in all of 2007.

Concerns over a further slowdown have prompted authorities to shift their focus instead to safeguarding growth.

"To give labour-intensive sectors more support through export tax rebates can not only give them breathing space, but also help stablise employment," said Zhang Bin, a senior researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Meanwhile, Beijing should further increase taxes on the export of energy-intensive and polluting products, as well as on grains, he told the official China Securities Journal.

To prevent drastic slides in exports and give its economy a boost, Beijing in July increased value-added tax rebates for exports of a range of textiles and garments to 13 percent from 11 percent. It also raised export tariffs on some polluting products such as fertiliser.

Fan Jianping, a senior researcher with the State Information Centre, told the same paper that such adjustments were needed. However, Fan noted that Bejing should not rely on tax policies alone to adjust its economic structure.

Rather, he stressed that China should further bring its comparatively low energy and resource prices up to international levels in order to spur more efficient use and to dampen incentives for exports of such products. (Reporting by Eadie Chen; Editing by Jason Subler) (eadie.chen@reuters.com; +8610 6627 1268; Reuters Messaging: eadie.chen.reuters.com@reuters.net))