Gao Lingyun

Consolidating the good trend of increasing foreign trade volume and quality requires us to maintain strategic focus and do our own thing firmly

Not long ago, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed that in the first seven months of this year, the total value of my country's import and export of goods trade was 23.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%. Among them, exports were 13.37 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.7%; imports were 10.23 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.3%; trade surplus was 3.14 trillion yuan, an increase of 62.1%. China's foreign trade has shown a trend of increasing both in quantity and quality, and in both quantity and quality, which fully demonstrates the strong resilience and vitality of my country's economic development. 

The "quantity increase" of my country's foreign trade is stable. Under the background of the century-old changes superimposed on the epidemic situation in the century and the adverse current of economic globalization, on the basis of the very large base last year, my country's import and export growth rate dropped from April to 0.1% and rebounded rapidly in May, June and July. Respectively reached 9.5%, 14.3% and 16.6%. What is particularly noteworthy is that my country's foreign trade surplus continued to expand, surpassing US$100 billion for the first time in July, hitting a record high.

China's foreign trade "high quality" has more gold content. First, the commodity structure is more optimized. In the first seven months of this year, while exports of labor-intensive products reflecting traditional advantages maintained growth, exports of photovoltaics, lithium batteries, and automobiles reflecting industrial upgrading performed more prominently, especially automobiles, which increased by 54.4%. This also proves once again that my country's important position in the global industrial chain and supply chain cannot be replaced. Second, trading partners are more diverse. In the first seven months, imports and exports with ASEAN increased by 13.2%, 1.4 and 4.3 percentage points higher than the growth of China-US and China-EU imports and exports respectively. Again, market players are more dynamic. In the first seven months, there were 526,000 foreign trade enterprises with actual import and export performance in my country, a year-on-year increase of 5.8%. Among them, private enterprises, as the "main force" of foreign trade, played a prominent role, with imports and exports increasing by 15.3%. In addition, new forms of foreign trade such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses are also developing rapidly.

In general, in the first seven months, my country's foreign trade withstood the pressure from all quarters, laying a solid foundation for the stability and improvement of foreign trade throughout the year. The increase in volume and quality of my country's foreign trade depends on the efficient coordination of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development. Although my country's foreign trade imports and exports were affected by the spread of the epidemic in the second quarter, all regions and departments made every effort to quickly break through the blocking points in the logistics and transportation links while building a solid epidemic prevention and control barrier, and focus on promoting the resumption of work and production and cross-border transportation. The facilitation of international trade has effectively promoted the continuous recovery of my country's foreign trade growth. At the same time, various policies were launched in a timely manner, and practical measures were taken to solve problems for enterprises. Since the beginning of this year, the "Opinions on Promoting the Stability and Quality Improvement of Foreign Trade" and "A Package of Policies and Measures for Solidly Stabilizing the Economy" have been issued to provide support for enterprises to restore vitality and innovate development. As these measures take effect gradually, the cost pressure of enterprises continues to be relieved, and the vitality is continuously stimulated.

At present, my country's foreign trade is in a critical period of positive development. It should also be noted that the risk of stagflation in the world economy is on the rise, and the monetary policies of major developed economies have contracted, amplifying the uncertainty in the external demand market. Consolidating the good trend of increasing foreign trade volume and quality requires us to maintain strategic focus and do our own thing firmly. It is necessary to focus on the present, sort out and evaluate the package of relief policies that have been implemented in various regions as soon as possible, and focus on promoting those with outstanding effects; it is also necessary to take into account the long-term, and timely introduce more foreign trade enterprises to open up new markets, develop new formats, and research and development. Policy initiatives for new products.

It should be noted that the fundamentals of my country's economic stability and long-term improvement have not changed. China's basic characteristics of economic potential, resilience, vitality, room for manoeuvre, and many policy tools have not changed. my country's development has many aspects. The advantages and conditions have not changed. With the accelerated implementation of the package of policies and measures to stabilize the economy, the logistics of foreign trade will be more smooth, and the resumption of work and production of enterprises will continue to accelerate.