BEIJING - A guideline to accelerate the transformation of the country's foreign trade growth pattern was jointly issued on Thursday by 10 Chinese government agencies.

The country aims to balance its foreign trade by increasing imports and optimizing the mix of its import tariffs, according to the publication on the Ministry of Commerce website.

The guideline said favorable tariff policies will be implemented to boost imports of advanced technology, equipment and components, energy and raw materials as well as people's daily necessities.

The government will encourage domestic firms to "go overseas" and secure stable supplies of energy and resources abroad, it said. The country is also keen to assume greater pricing power in the global commodities market and better its reserve system of strategic resources.

The guideline urged more efforts to increase the share of developing countries in China's foreign trade and push forward the strategy of introducing free-trade areas.

It said the government will help export firms to improve quality, build their own brands and move up the technology and value-added scale so that they can foster global competitiveness.

Under the guideline, China will further reform the yuan's exchange rate formation mechanism to make the currency more flexible. It also vows to promote the use of the yuan in cross-border trade settlement and investment.

China's foreign trade slumped in January from a year earlier as a week-long holiday distorted figures and the slower economy sapped demand. Its exports dropped 0.5 percent year-on-year in January, the first decline in more than two years.