China’s trade surplus with its trading partners widened as much as 13 percent to $102.2 billion in the fourth quarter, according to the preliminary data released on Monday by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

The surplus figure was almost unchanged from the third quarter’s $102.3 billion surplus, which was more than double the year-earlier figure, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting SAFE data.

China’s widening trade surplus against the U.S. has been a matter of contention between the two largest economies of the world. The U.S. has accused China of keeping its currency artificially low to give competitive advantage to its exporters.

However, runaway growth in China’s inflation is expected to reduce the country’s trade surplus with the U.S. and other trading partners. There are already reports that Chinese shipments to its Western trading partners are seeing a relative lull in recent weeks as prices of export items have gone up thanks to an unprecedented commodities boom.

Chinese inflation is around five percent currently, prompting the government to unveil a slew of measures to prevent the economy from overheating.

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China suppliers are some of the most cost efficient suppliers in today’s market. These China suppliers are able to offer a host of products, even services, to buyers all around the world. China can offer these greatly reduced prices because of their plentiful supply of labor. This has turned the country into a veritable workshop of the world to buyers all across the planet. Finding items made in China is a pretty easy thing to do. Look up and down the rows of products sitting on the shelves of local stores. Undoubtedly you’ll see rows upon rows of items that are marked as having originated in China.

However, the great availability of products from China has led to the assumption that getting items from China suppliers is an easy thing to do. There is actually a complex supply chain that brings these products from the suppliers and back home. There are so many items offered by China for sale that it is often a difficult proposition to find exactly what you are looking for. Furthermore, depending on how distant you are from China and who you are interfacing with, barriers such as time, language and distance may prevent you from finding that exact trinket that would be great to market and sell back home.

An effective way of cutting through much of this difficulty relies on quick and rapid communication and verification of suppliers. Opening up channels with China suppliers doesn’t need to be so overly formal or technical. While international trade is usually regulated and compounded by governmental red tape, there are alternatives to communicating with China suppliers that don’t involve cold calls. The old methods of communication in the business world by telephone and fax is rapidly drying up because of more efficient ways of communicating business needs.

Conducting business via unofficial channels, whether in small personal meetings or at trade shows, can be more important than cold calling a prospective business partner. This removes much of the formality that often accompanies traditional means of business interaction. Online social networking offers a solution to many international business people. Online social networking websites dedicated to facilitating international trade do exist. These sites can open up lines of communication between China suppliers and the rest of the world. The main benefit of being on one of these websites is that membership is consensual. Every party online is doing so willingly.