General

After three years, the 133rd Canton Fair, which was fully resumed offline, presented a reassuring "answer sheet" to the world. Data shows that there were 66000 overseas buyers attending the first phase of the Canton Fair, with export transactions reaching 12.8 billion US dollars. Among them, the proportion of medium to long term orders over 3 months was nearly 60%. As the "wind vane" and "barometer" of China's foreign trade, the data from the Canton Fair reflects from one side the strong resilience and competitiveness of China's foreign trade.

The stability that exudes through resilience has become the most distinctive background of China's foreign trade at present. In the first quarter of this year, China's import and export of goods reached 9.89 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%. Among them, the import and export in March increased by 15.5% year-on-year, achieving an overall stable start. From the perspective of product structure, the export growth of high value-added products such as automobiles has not decreased, and the export volume of automobiles increased by 96.6% in the first quarter. The "new three types" of competitive advantages in electric vehicles, photovoltaic, and lithium batteries continue to be released, with a total export growth of 66.9% in the first quarter, driving the overall export growth rate of China to 2 percentage points. These characteristics were fully demonstrated at this year's Canton Fair.

Through this year's Canton Fair, we can see the recognition of China's "new three types" in the international market. The first phase of this year's Canton Fair features new themes such as industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, new energy and intelligent connected vehicles, and smart life, attracting a total of 762 enterprises to participate. At the same time, the "New Three Kinds" products made a concentrated appearance, showcasing about 500000 low-carbon environmental protection exhibits such as zero carbon source air conditioners and photovoltaic energy storage equipment, attracting a large number of buyers to inquire and negotiate. As Huo Jianguo, Vice President of the China World Trade Organization Research Association, said, the sales boom of the "new three types" is not planned, but a product of fierce market competition, indicating that the mobility of advantageous resources in the global market is difficult to stop by any trade protectionism.

In the first quarter, China's foreign trade achieved a "stable opening", which was not easily achieved against the backdrop of the complex and severe foreign trade situation in China. From the perspective of external environment, the uncertainty of external demand remains the biggest constraint. In April, the International Monetary Fund lowered the global economic growth rate from 2.9% to 2.8%, believing that the slowdown in the growth rate of developed country economies will be very significant. As for China, from the perspective of business entities, foreign trade enterprises in China also face some constraints and practical difficulties such as inconvenience in participating abroad, increased trade risks, and increased business pressure.

To solve the practical difficulties encountered by foreign trade enterprises, it is necessary to continuously improve the foresight and accuracy of policies, promote the stable scale and optimal structure of foreign trade, and continuously enhance the resilience and competitiveness of China's foreign trade.

To enhance the resilience and competitiveness of China's foreign trade, efforts should be made to stabilize the scale. On the one hand, efforts should be made to create trade opportunities for international trade enterprises. Actively promoting the holding of offline exhibitions in China, and the resumption of offline exhibitions at the Canton Fair is a good example. face-to-face communication and exchange are more conducive to achieving cooperation. China will also improve the efficiency of handling APEC business travel cards and promote the safe and orderly resumption of international passenger flights.

On the other hand, we should continue to stabilize the trade of key products. This includes helping automobile enterprises to establish and improve International marketing service system, ensuring reasonable capital demand for large complete equipment projects, and accelerating the revision of the catalogue of technologies and products encouraged to be imported. In addition, banks and insurance institutions should be encouraged to expand cooperation in policy financing and credit enhancement, actively meet the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises for foreign trade financing, and thereby stabilize the number and scale of international trade enterprises.

To enhance the resilience and competitiveness of China's foreign trade, it is necessary to tap potential in optimizing the structure. We need to continuously optimize trade methods and guide processing trade to gradient transfer to the central and western regions and Northeast regions; Support the development of global trade digital pilot zones in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area; Guide relevant chambers of commerce and associations to adapt to green and environmental protection requirements, and formulate a series of green and low-carbon standards for foreign trade products; Guide enterprises to make good use of tax policies related to cross-border e-commerce retail exports. We need to optimize the environment for foreign trade development, give full play to the role of the early warning system and legal service mechanism, deeply promote the construction of a "single window", further facilitate the handling of international trade export tax refunds, improve port clearance efficiency, and implement effective free trade agreements with high quality.

The second phase of the 133rd Canton Fair has already opened, and efforts should continue to be made to stabilize foreign trade. Next, we should closely monitor the operation of international trade, play a good role in policy combination, stabilize the scale of foreign trade, and make greater contributions to consolidating the positive trend of international trade and economy.