On July 17, the person in charge of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce introduced the relevant situation of my country’s foreign trade operations in the first half of 2018.
Since the beginning of this year, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce, together with various regions and departments, has continued to implement a series of policies issued by the State Council to promote foreign trade development and actively responded to Sino-US trade frictions. In the first half of the year, foreign trade achieved Rapid growth, the scale of import and export reached a record high, the structure continued to be optimized, the transformation of power was accelerated, quality and efficiency were further improved, and the stable and positive momentum was further consolidated, laying a solid foundation for the high-quality development of foreign trade. According to customs statistics, my country’s total import and export volume in the first half of the year was 14.12 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.9% year-on-year (the same below); of which exports were 7.51 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.9%; imports were 6.61 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.5%; and the surplus was 901.32 billion yuan. , narrowed by 26.7%. (In US dollars, my country’s total import and export volume in the first half of the year was US$2.21 trillion, an increase of 16.0%, of which exports were US$1.17 trillion, an increase of 12.8%; imports were US$1.03 trillion, an increase of 19.9%; the surplus was US$139.65 billion, narrowing by 27.5% .)
The person in charge of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce pointed out that my country’s foreign trade operations in the first half of 2018 mainly showed the following characteristics:
From the perspective of commodity structure, the export of mechanical and electrical products was 4.4 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.0%, accounting for 58.6%, of which automobiles, mobile phones, computers, etc. increased by 14.9%, 10.7% and 6.0% respectively. The export volume of seven traditional labor-intensive industries, including textiles and clothing, was 1.41 trillion yuan, down 4.1%. The import of mechanical and electrical products was 2.92 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.4%; of which, the import value of metal processing machine tools, integrated circuits, and computers increased by 28.0%, 22.7%, and 17.7% respectively.
From the perspective of operating entities, private enterprises exported 3.57 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.6%, accounting for 47.5%, an increase of 1.2 percentage points from the same period last year, and continued to maintain their status as the largest operating entity in exports. The exports of foreign-invested enterprises were 3.12 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.6%, accounting for 41.5%. The exports of state-owned enterprises were 821.2 billion yuan, an increase of 7.1%, accounting for 10.9%.
In terms of trade mode, general trade import and export reached 8.33 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.2%, accounting for 59.0% of the country’s total foreign trade value, an increase of 2.3 percentage points from the same period last year. The import and export of processing trade was 3.73 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.5%, accounting for 26.4%. Border small trade import and export amounted to 124.69 billion yuan, an increase of 5.8%, accounting for 0.9%.
From the international market, my country’s exports to traditional markets such as the United States, the European Union, and Hong Kong increased by 5.7%, 4.0%, and 5.8% respectively; imports and exports to some emerging markets such as the “Belt and Road” countries and BRICS countries maintained rapid growth , among which the import and export growth rates to Vietnam, Indonesia, Russia, and Brazil reached 19.8%, 18.8%, 16.0%, and 15.4% respectively.
From the perspective of regional layout, the import and export of the central and western regions increased by 15.3%, 7.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, and the proportion increased by 1 percentage point to 15.6%. Among them, the import and export of the central region was 1.11 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.0%; the import and export of the western region was 1.09 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.8%. The import and export of the eastern region was 11.92 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.6%, accounting for 84.4%.
In the next step, we will take the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, firmly establish and implement the new development concept, follow the tasks and requirements put forward in the “Government Work Report”, and adhere to the general tone of work of seeking progress while maintaining stability. Deepen the supply-side structural reform of foreign trade, increase efforts to cultivate new trade formats, promote the gradient transfer and innovative development of processing trade to the central and western regions, actively expand imports, go all out to prepare for the first China International Import Expo, and further enhance the level of trade facilitation, Promote the high-quality development of foreign trade, promote the construction of a strong trade country, and make greater contributions to the national economy and social development.
