General

"The possibility of making the 'cake' of global foreign trade bigger this year is relatively small, and we should think about how to continue to play our advantages in this situation." "In general, this year should stabilize the scale and optimize the structure." At the theme press conference of the "opening of the authoritative department" series held by the State Administration for Foreign Affairs on March 2, the Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao pointed out the current situation and development path of international trade this year.

At present, the risk of recession in the world economy is rising and the trend of stagflation is emerging. The World Trade Organization predicts that the volume of global trade in goods will only increase by 1% this year, which is about 2.5 percentage points slower than last year. The challenges brought by the external environment to China's foreign trade are self-evident.

"The pressure on international trade has increased significantly this year, mainly due to the weakening of external demand. The reasons for this situation are not only the weakening of external demand and the rising risk of the world economic recession, but also the influence of protectionism and geopolitics.

How to stabilize foreign trade in the face of difficulties? "On the whole, we should stabilize the scale and optimize the structure this year," said Wang Wentao.

Wang Wentao further said that the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to build a trade power. "The trade power has three pillars, namely, the upgrading of trade in goods, the innovation of trade in services, and the development of digital trade. We will also work on these three pillars to further optimize the structure of foreign trade and enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of foreign trade while maintaining the basic scale."

Stabilize the scale and make efforts at three levels

How to stabilize the scale? Wang Wentao introduced that three key tasks should be done well:

First of all, the stabilization policy is to stabilize expectations through the stabilization policy. "Last year's foreign trade situation was severe. In response to the impact of the epidemic and the uncertainty of foreign demand, we have issued two consecutive rounds of foreign trade stabilization policies, which played an important role in the achievement of 42.1 trillion yuan in foreign trade last year," said Wang Wentao.

According to the data, China's foreign trade reached a new high in 2022, and the import and export scale of international trade in goods broke through the 40 trillion yuan mark for the first time, reaching 42.1 trillion yuan, up 7.7% year on year, ranking first in the world for the sixth consecutive year. The contribution rate of net exports of goods and services to GDP growth reached 17.1%, driving the growth of GDP by 0.5 percentage points, making an important contribution to the stable operation of the macro economy.

"At present, we are still studying some policies. We constantly listen to the opinions of relevant provinces and enterprises, understand the difficulties they face, and will issue policies in accordance with international rules to promote the development of foreign trade," said Wang Wentao.

Secondly, stabilize the market. Wang Wentao said that traditional markets such as the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea should be stabilized, and emerging markets should be developed. At the same time, markets in Latin America and countries along the the Belt and Road also have great potential. Last year, the growth rate of trade between China and ASEAN exceeded that of the traditional market, which has become China's largest trading partner.

Thirdly, stabilize trade channels. "We should use traditional channels such as the Canton Fair to carry out trade promotion activities, and encourage enterprises to participate overseas, and encourage local, trade promotion agencies and business associations to carry out various forms of trade promotion activities.

Optimize structure and enhance comprehensive competitiveness

In terms of optimizing the structure, the Ministry of Commerce also did a good job in three aspects.

First, optimize the mode of trade. While strengthening general trade, we should support the gradient transfer and upgrading of processing trade. "Cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouse, bonded maintenance and other new business forms and models are developing rapidly, and we should coordinate and promote their rapid and healthy development. In terms of service trade, we should promote the upgrading and construction of the national service trade innovation and development demonstration zone on the basis of the pilot projects in the early stage." Wang Wentao said.

Second, optimize the layout of foreign trade supply chain. We will implement the strategy of coordinated regional development, improve the quality of trade in the eastern region, and increase the proportion of trade in the central and western regions and the Northeast.

Wang Wentao said that at present, the trend of industry transfer to the central and western regions and the northeast regions is becoming stronger and stronger, and the advantages of the central and western regions and the northeast regions in terms of location, resource endowment and factor cost are also gradually emerging, including labor force and land resources. In terms of transportation, the opening of the China-Europe train and the new land and sea routes also provided greater impetus for industrial transfer. "In the layout of the supply chain, the central and western regions and the northeast regions have great potential."

Third, we should optimize the product mix and cultivate new drivers of trade. Wang Wentao said that China's industry is moving towards the middle and high end. While consolidating its traditional advantages, it is also necessary to cultivate new trade growth points in the process of upgrading. "Take the 'new three kinds' as an example, the export of automobiles, especially new energy vehicles, is a bright spot, and the export growth of lithium batteries, photovoltaic products and other products is also very fast. These are new drivers of foreign trade."

In addition, digital empowerment can also increase the momentum of trade, including supporting local governments to explore and hold trade digital exhibitions, accelerating the construction of the global trade digital pilot zone in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and continuously improving the level of international trade digitization.

"The situation this year is grim, but we are more confident." Wang Wentao said that the Ministry of Commerce will implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress, work hard to stabilize the scale and optimize the structure, listen to the demands of market players, and formulate targeted policies and measures to help enterprises develop better in the international trade market.