General

The international trade import and export data for April will be released soon. Against the backdrop of stable opening of foreign trade in the first quarter, the main provinces (cities) of foreign trade have introduced support policies tailored to local conditions, promoting stable scale and optimized structure of foreign trade, and consolidating the sustained rebound momentum of foreign trade.

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 is expected to usher in better development prospects.

Play the role of the main force

On May 5th, Shandong Province's foreign trade released a dazzling "transcript" for the first quarter: in the first quarter, it achieved 764.62 billion yuan in international trade import and export of goods, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%. Among them, exports amounted to 459.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%; The import reached 305.34 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%.

In the first quarter, there were four provinces (cities) in China with a total foreign trade volume exceeding one trillion yuan, with Guangdong Province leading the country with an import and export scale of 1.84 trillion yuan. Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province respectively ranked second and third with a total import and export volume of about 1.2 trillion yuan and 1.13 trillion yuan, while Shanghai ranked fourth.

China's international trade imports and exports have achieved a stable start, and the main force of foreign trade is indispensable, "said industry insiders.

From the export structure of the major provinces (cities) in foreign trade in the first quarter, the new three types have become the main driving force for foreign trade. For example, the export volume of electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells in Shanghai increased by 98.2%, 2.2 times, and 57.3% year-on-year in the first quarter. The exports of electric passenger vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells in Guangdong Province increased by 10.5 times, 50.5%, and 1.2 times respectively in the first quarter. In the first quarter of Jiangsu Province, the exports of electric vehicles, solar cells, and lithium batteries increased by 27.6% year-on-year, with electric vehicle exports increasing by 324.7%, solar cell exports increasing by 2.4%, and lithium battery exports increasing by 64.9%.

Li Chunding, a professor at the School of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University and director of the Department of Economics and Trade, stated that the major provinces (cities) in foreign trade play an important role in stabilizing the overall basic situation of foreign trade. Although inland provinces and central and western regions have developed rapidly in recent years, the proportion of foreign trade in the eastern coastal areas is higher, playing a more important role in the process of foreign trade transformation and upgrading. Therefore, in the process of stabilizing foreign trade, China should especially play a good role as the main force of foreign trade.

Increased policy support

In order to promote the sustained recovery of foreign trade, the main provinces (cities) in foreign trade have increased their support for stabilizing foreign trade policies, introduced various policies tailored to local conditions, and promoted high-quality development of foreign trade. Shanghai has released several policy measures to promote stable scale and quality of foreign trade, with the main focus on promoting stable scale, transformation, expanding the market, and optimizing the environment. It proposes 21 measures in four aspects, including supporting electromechanical and high-tech product enterprises to expand diversified international trade markets, and supporting foreign economic and trade enterprises to participate in domestic and foreign exhibitions.

Guangzhou issued the Notice on Publicly Soliciting Opinions on Several Measures of Guangzhou to Promote Digital transformation of Processing Trade and Promote High Quality Development of Foreign Trade, proposing to promote Digital transformation of the whole process of processing trade industry chain, enable enterprises through digital technology, further improve international competitiveness of foreign trade, create a strong engine for foreign trade growth, and promote high-quality development of foreign trade.

The provincial foreign trade work conference held by the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province proposed that the next step is to strengthen goal orientation and process management, and make every effort to stabilize the stock, increase production, and prevent reduction; Increase policy and service support, including organizing the "Thousand Regiments and Ten Thousand Enterprises" campaign to expand the market and increase orders, and further leveraging the role of finance in promoting foreign trade stability and innovative development; Deepen the cultivation and improvement of foreign trade entities, cultivate leading foreign trade enterprises, and accelerate the construction of international trade headquarters.

If the main force is stable, then foreign trade is stable. "Zhao Fujun, director and researcher of the Comprehensive Research Office of the Department of Foreign Economic Research at the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that supporting policies tailored to local conditions can help stabilize the basic situation of foreign trade. This is particularly important for addressing the current shortage of external demand and achieving the annual foreign trade growth target.

Stable export materials

Industry insiders believe that with the continuous release of policy effects, China's foreign trade is expected to usher in better development prospects.

"China's exports in the second quarter are expected to remain stable on the whole." Lu Sinan, a researcher of Dagong International Credit Rating Co., Ltd., said that in recent years, China's foreign trade exchanges with ASEAN and countries along the "the Belt and Road" have been increasing. With the accelerated economic recovery of these emerging market countries, it is expected that China's exports in the second quarter will be strongly boosted.

Wei Jianguo, Vice Chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchange, believes that the rapid stabilization and recovery of foreign trade in the first quarter is encouraging, and it is expected that imports and exports will achieve double-digit growth throughout the year, indicating that foreign trade can continue to serve as a strong support for China's economic development.

It should be noted that China's foreign trade is currently facing many difficulties and challenges, and caution needs to be maintained whether foreign trade can continue to recover. Bai Ming, a member of the Academic Degrees Committee of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, reminds that in judging the trend of foreign trade, in addition to looking at growth data, it is also necessary to consider the impact of last year's base effect. In the first quarter of this year, the concentrated release of demand caused by factors such as the epidemic pushed up international trade import and export data, but there are still many pressures that have not been fully alleviated. Special attention should be paid to the sustainability of foreign trade growth.