General

On May 9th, the latest data released by the General Administration of Customs showed that the total import and export value of China's goods trade in the first four months was 13.32 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.8%. Among them, exports reached 7.67 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.6%; Import reached 5.65 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.02%. From a single month perspective, China's total import and export value in April was 3.43 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.9%. Among them, exports reached 2.02 trillion yuan, an increase of 16.8%; Import reached 1.41 trillion yuan, a decrease of 0.8%.

After the unexpected surge in exports in March, the data from April once again confirmed the resilience and vitality of China's foreign trade. Experts said that at present, the vitality of China's foreign trade business entities has significantly increased, and countries and regions along the "the Belt and Road" and RCEP member countries have become new growth points of foreign trade. In the future, with the continuous release of a series of policy effects from the central to local governments, the positive momentum of international trade is expected to continue further.

Export growth highlights foreign trade resilience

"In recent months, the overall market demand in the United States, Europe and Japan has slowed down, and the exports of South Korea, Vietnam and other surrounding economies have slowed down significantly, while China's foreign trade export growth performance still exceeded expectations, indicating that China's foreign trade is full of resilience." Zhou Maohua, a macro researcher in the financial market department of Everbright Bank, said.

Data shows that in the first four months, China's imports and exports to ASEAN and the European Union increased, while exports to the United States, Japan, and other countries decreased. ASEAN continues to be China's largest trading partner, with an import and export volume of 2.09 trillion yuan to ASEAN, a year-on-year increase of 13.9%; The import and export to the European Union reached 1.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.2%, which is 2.2 percentage points faster than the first quarter; The total trade value with the United States and Japan decreased by 4.2% and 2.6% year-on-year, respectively.

Over the same period, China's total value of international trade imports and exports to countries along the "the Belt and Road" was 4.61 trillion yuan, up 16% year on year. Among them, imports and exports to the five Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and to West Asian and North African countries such as Saudi Arabia increased by 37.4% and 9.6%, respectively.

In the view of Xu Hongcai, deputy director of the Economic Policy Committee of the China Policy Science Research Association, there has been a new change in China's foreign trade export market - export orders from the United States, Japan and other developed economies have decreased, while orders from countries along the "the Belt and Road" have increased significantly, and there has been a phenomenon of "trade-offs". It is worth mentioning that RCEP is about to enter into full force for 15 member states, which will bring more opportunities for foreign trade enterprises to "go overseas" to stabilize orders and expand markets.

Meanwhile, the main body of Chinese foreign trade enterprises is becoming more active. According to customs statistics, there were 415000 private enterprises with import and export performance in the first four months, an increase of 8.9% year-on-year. Private enterprises continue to maintain their position as the largest business entity in China's foreign trade. The international trade import and export of private enterprises reached 7.05 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.8%.

Since the beginning of this year, the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Government have taken the lead in promoting the overall improvement of the "42 policies" in economic operation, especially a series of specific measures to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment, promoting foreign trade enterprises to run out of the "acceleration" of stabilizing stock, expanding growth, and high-quality development. Li Yanzhou, General Manager of the Operations Management Department of Jiangsu Huihong Group, introduced to the International Business Daily reporter that in order to further secure orders and expand the international trade market, as of the end of April, the group had dispatched 91 economic and trade delegations to visit 33 countries and regions, achieving fruitful results in stabilizing existing customers and expanding emerging markets. At the same time, we seized the opportunity to fully resume offline exhibitions at the 133rd Canton Fair. We received over 6000 buyers from over 60 countries and regions around the world on site, with an intended transaction value of over 20 million US dollars. We have effectively achieved our exhibition goals of developing customers, winning orders, showcasing our image, and training our team.

Structural optimization reflects industrial upgrading

The import and export structure of China's foreign trade continued to optimize in the first four months.

On the one hand, the proportion of general trade imports and exports has increased. In the first four months, China's general trade import and export reached 8.72 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.5% year-on-year, accounting for 65.4% of China's total foreign trade value, an increase of 1.6 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Among them, exports reached 5.01 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.1%; Import reached 3.71 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.8%.

On the other hand, from a specific commodity perspective, while the international trade export of labor-intensive products has grown, the export of mechanical and electrical products has maintained a significant growth, accounting for over half of the total export value, once again becoming one of the core driving forces for exports. Data shows that in the first four months, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 4.44 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%, accounting for 57.9% of the total export value. Among them, the export of automobiles reached 204.53 billion yuan, an increase of 120.3%. During the same period, the export of labor secret products reached 1.31 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.8%, accounting for 17.1%.

The continuous optimization of export structure reflects the innovation and upgrading of China's industrial structure. Faced with many challenges such as tight supply of chips and components, high costs, and rising shipping costs, GAC International, a subsidiary of GAC Group, has actively responded by deepening its local operating system, promoting localized production, and strengthening brand building, achieving significant growth in automobile exports. The person in charge of GAC International introduced to reporters that in the first quarter of this year, the company exported 10013 new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 74%. Among them, exports from the Middle East region increased by 57%, exports from the Americas region increased by 60%, and exports from Asia and Africa region increased by 526%. Next, we will focus on three key markets: Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Chile, especially achieving breakthroughs in the 10000 vehicle market in Mexico

Assist China's foreign trade to continue to improve, and introduce a new round of stable foreign trade policies. Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting Stable Scale and Optimal Structure of Foreign Trade", proposing 18 measures in five aspects to ensure the achievement of the goal of maintaining stability and improving quality in foreign trade. At present, some measures are steadily and effectively advancing.

Experts say that the main force of foreign trade plays an important role in stabilizing the overall basic situation of foreign trade. With the continuous release of policy effects, China's foreign trade resilience will continue to strengthen, and the positive momentum is expected to continue further.