Canton Fair attendance expected to drop as imports, exports slide

The three-week-long China Import and Export Fair opening Wednesday expects a lower turnout compared to previous years, down 8 million attendees from last year’s total of 188,000, South China Morning Post reported, citing fair spokesman and deputy director-general of the China Foreign Trade Center Liu Jianjun. The twice-yearly Canton Fair in Guangzhou is popularly viewed as an indicator of probable export performance for mainland China, where both imports and exports fell by double digits last month. The fair saw peak attendance in 2012 of 210,000 overseas buyers.