China's foreign trade hits a new high, injects stability into the global economy

Source: Central Radio and Television International Online Time: 2020-01-15

The latest data released by the General Administration of Customs of China on Tuesday (14th) shows that the total value of China’s foreign trade imports and exports reached RMB 31.54 trillion in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 3.4%. Imports, exports, and imports all hit record highs throughout the year. Against the backdrop of stagnation in global trade growth, China’s foreign trade has achieved further success, showing the resilience and vitality of China’s economy, and also playing an important role in combating downward pressure on the global economy.

In 2019, due to the impact of unilateralism and trade protectionism, the overall downturn in global foreign trade has become one of the most prominent features of the world economy. World Trade Organization Director General Roberto Azevedo said recently that many governments have introduced a large number of trade restrictions that have affected US$747 billion in global imports in the past year. According to the \"Statistics Manual for 2019\" recently released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, global merchandise trade is expected to decline by 2.4% in 2019, compared with a 10.7% increase in 2017 and a 9.7% increase in 2018.

Against this background, China's foreign trade imports and exports in 2019 not only achieved a steady increase in volume, but also achieved a steadily qualitative improvement, which was particularly dazzling, mainly in four aspects:

First, China's import and export structure continues to be optimized. From the perspective of trade structure, import and export of general trade with higher added value increased by 5.6% year-on-year, accounting for 59% of the total value of foreign trade, an increase of 1.2 percentage points from 2018. The leading role is more obvious; from the perspective of import and export commodity categories, in 2019 Imports of consumer goods increased by 19%, of which imports of fruits, cosmetics and aquatic products all increased substantially by nearly 40%, and the potential for domestic demand was continuously released. At the same time, exports of electromechanical products, which accounted for nearly 60% of total exports, increased by 4.4%, and the pace of industrial transformation and upgrading was further accelerated.

Secondly, China has made remarkable achievements in opening up a diversified import and export market, and the \"friend circle\" in the international market is getting bigger and bigger. In 2019, China's imports and exports to major markets such as the EU and ASEAN increased by 8% and 14.1% year-on-year respectively, especially for the countries along the \"Belt and Road\". The import and export market is becoming more diversified, and China's foreign trade is significantly more resistant to risks.

Third, private enterprises have played an increasingly important role. For the first time in 2019, private enterprises have surpassed foreign-invested enterprises and become China's largest foreign trade entity. The import and export of private enterprises was 13.48 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.4%, accounting for 42.7% of China's total foreign trade value, an increase of 3.1 percentage points from 2018.

Fourth, the international competitive advantage of China’s export commodities has improved significantly. The 2019 China terms of trade index is 101.4, which means that the same amount of goods exported can be exchanged for more goods. According to the latest WTO data, in the first nine months of 2019, the global market share of China's electromechanical products and labor-intensive products increased by 0.2 and 0.9 percentage points, respectively.

Foreign trade is an important window for observing the economic development of a country. The global economy has slowed down in 2019, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reduced the global economic growth rate to 3% four times during the year, the lowest level since the 2008 international financial crisis. In this context, China's imports and exports in 2019 can still maintain a stable and improved quality, and the risk resistance and resilience of the Chinese economy can be seen. Obviously, the steady development of China's economy has laid a solid foundation for the growth of foreign trade.

Especially in the past year, China continued to adopt a series of measures such as tax reduction and fee reduction, and optimization of the business environment, and the momentum for steady growth of foreign trade increased greatly. In 2019, China successively increased the export tax rebate rate for some products, independently lowered the import tariffs on consumer goods, and canceled the import tariffs on some medicines. The policy effect continued to be released. In terms of improving the level of trade facilitation, the overall customs clearance time for China's imports and exports in 2019 was reduced by 42.3% and 42.4% compared to 2018, respectively.

At present, the world economic growth continues to slow down, unstable and uncertain factors increase, and the external environment facing China's foreign trade development remains severe and complex. However, the general trend of China's optimization of foreign trade structure and acceleration of power conversion will not change. In addition, China is unswervingly expanding its opening up, especially paying more attention to rules and other institutional openings, and promoting the high-quality development of foreign trade. For example, it has built a pioneering demonstration zone for socialism with Chinese characteristics in Shenzhen and a new port area in Shanghai Free Trade Zone. Trade pilot zone, promulgated the \"Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment\", etc.

It has just begun in 2020, and people have reason to believe that while maintaining overall steady growth, China's foreign trade will further enhance global competitiveness and continue to play an important role in global economic growth.