BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- China may overtake the United States to become the world's second largest exporter this year if its current export growth speed continues, said a senior government official here Saturday.

Yu Guangzhou, vice minister of commerce, told the China Economic Development Forum that for now China ranks the third after Germany and the US in terms of export volume, but it is highly possible that China will surpass the US to be next to only Germany within this year.

In 2006, China's export volume trailed that of the US only by less than 70 billion U.S. dollars, while its export growth speed was seven percentage points higher than that of the US. Calculated with the current growth rate, China's export may possibly exceed that of the US by 50 billion U.S. dollars this year.

Observers in Beijing estimated that if China maintains its foreign trade growth rate, it will replace Germany to become the world's top exporter next year. In terms of total foreign trade volume, China will possibly surpass Germany to become world's no. 2 this year or by next year, with the US ahead only.

Customs statistics show that in the first half of this year, China's foreign trade volume reached 980.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 23.3 percent year-on-year. Of this, export grew 27.6 percent to 546.7 billion dollars, while import grew 18.2 percent to 434.2 billion dollars.

Yu said that China's foreign trade structure has been gradually optimized through readjusting tax rebate policies and processing trade policies. The export of high energy consuming and high pollution products has dropped sharply.