As the leading beneficiary of soaring global trade over the past decade, China's decision to further cut import tariffs next year is not merely to fulfill the country's commitments made upon joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.

It is far more important to make this move a first step to substantially increase China's imports for the sake of both boosting domestic consumption and rebalancing the global economy.

The Ministry of Finance announced Tuesday that, in addition to slashing import duties on six commodities from Jan 1 to honor its WTO commitments, China will impose temporarily low import tariffs on more than 600 commodities ranging from resource commodities to advanced production machines.