China's commerce minister said Friday he is "fully" confident of meeting a 7.5 percent growth target in trade this year, citing what he calls an "improving environment" in the global economy.

"Given our comprehensive analysis of the international market, we are fully confident of achieving our target of 7.5 percent growth in foreign trade in 2014," Commerce Minister Gao Hucheong told reporters.

Gao made the remarks at a press briefing on the sidelines of China's annual legislative policy-setting session.

The minister expected global demand to rise this year, saying, "the global economy keeps recovering, particularly among emerging nations."

China's trade volume reached $4.16 trillion last year, up 7.6 percent from a year ago.

Asked whether China would join a U.S.-led free trade initiative called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Gao replied that China is monitoring the progress of the TPP negotiations.

Currently, China is not a party to negotiations to forge the TPP, which would make up about 40 percent of the global economy.

"China pays significant attention to the progress of the TPP talks and assesses the situations of the talks," Gao said, adding that China is keeping communications with the major negotiating parties.

"We think the TPP is an important negotiation," Gao said. (Yonhap)