Next week's China International Import Expo showcases companies from all over the world - eager to enter the Chinese market, or expand their existing operations. Several countries are sending high-level delegations. But the US is not among them. CGTN's Roee Ruttenberg has more from Shanghai.

Putting on the final touches. Crews have been working around the clock, assembling exhibits from every corner of the world.

Next week, tens of thousands of people from China and abroad will fill Shanghai's National Exhibition and Convention Center with its nearly half-a-million square meters in exhibition space.

WANG BINGNAN VICE MINISTER, CHINA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE "All member countries of the G20, BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will attend the expo. And enterprises from more than 50 countries along the Belt and Road route and from more than 30 least-developed countries will also participate."

The China International Import Expo will promote developing economies alongside the world's more well-established ones. And, it'll give a platform to small and medium-sized companies, in theory, enabling them to compete alongside major global firms.

ROEE RUTTENBERG SHANGHAI "Think of what's going to happen here essentially as a speed-dating service, a sort of matchmaking meant to address both supply and demand. So, a Chinese province - looking to diversify its imports - can shop globally without even going abroad. Or, a foreign company, looking for distribution in China, can come here and quickly find that chain."

JOHN EDWARDS BRITISH CONSUL GENERAL IN SHANGHAI "The last 40 years of reform and opening-up in China have brought great benefits to China, but also great benefits to the world. Now as President Xi Jinping said, China is about to take more steps in opening-up, more concrete steps in allowing countries to come here, set up here, do business here, selling to this market, opening up its market."

For some, that's great news. But Washington doesn't appear to share that sentiment. Just days ago, an American diplomat in Beijing said the US would not send a senior delegation to Shanghai. He also urged China to end what he called its 'unfair trading practices'. Some see this snub as another chess move in Washington's confrontations with Beijing.

Despite the ongoing trade war, nearly two hundred American firms are expected to participate.

There is, after all, big business to be done here. China says it intends to import ten trillion dollars' worth of goods over the next five years. Goods that have to come from somewhere.

For nearly a decade, China has been the world's leading exporter. So the fact that China now wants to transform itself into a giant importer is no small task.

The expo is the first of its kind, which sends a message. China is no longer content to be the world's 'factory floor'. One of the world's fastest-growing consumer markets is getting set to consume a lot more. Roee Ruttenberg, CGTN, in Shanghai.