Director of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce explains in detail the reasons for the “double decline” in foreign trade

On the morning of May 20, Zhang Ji, Director of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, said at a press conference that since the beginning of this year, my country’s foreign trade situation has been severe and complex, and downward pressure has increased.
According to customs statistics, from January to April, imports, exports and exports declined year-on-year. Zhang Ji said that this kind of “double decline” was the first time in more than ten years except for the same period in 2009. It should be said that it has attracted attention from all aspects. “This is not only due to the abnormal trade with Hong Kong in the same period last year that raised the base, but also reflects that our foreign trade is indeed facing sluggish external demand, weakening of traditional competitive advantages and other deep-seated problems. It should be said that the reasons are complex. ”
Zhang Ji analyzed that from the perspective of trading partners, the sharp decline in trade with Hong Kong is a major factor. From January to April last year, trade between the mainland and Hong Kong experienced abnormal growth. In US dollar terms, imports, exports and exports to Hong Kong fell by 31% from January to April this year, lowering the national import, export and export growth rates by 3.7 and 6.5 percentage points respectively.
From the perspective of trade methods, processing trade is a major trade method that slows down the growth rate of foreign trade. In terms of U.S. dollars, processing trade imports and exports and exports in the first four months fell by 4% and 3.6% respectively, which lowered foreign trade imports and exports. and export growth rates of 1.4 percentage points and 1.4 percentage points.
From a product perspective, major export commodities such as integrated circuits, LCD panels, automatic data processing equipment and parts, and ships have declined significantly, with declines of 58%, 25%, 6%, and 13.5% respectively. For these types of products This reduced the national export growth rate by 4.6 percentage points.
An in-depth analysis of my country’s foreign trade situation shows that there are still some deep-seated factors that are changing. Zhang Ji pointed out that under the current situation of foreign trade development and external demand has not yet fundamentally improved, our country’s foreign trade has begun to show a slowdown in international industrial transfers, accelerating industrial transfers and order transfers to neighboring countries, and rising production factor costs. Fast, one liter” trend.