From January to July, China’s foreign trade registered steady and fast growth, firmly supporting the creation of a new development paradigm. On July 2nd, the State Council General Office issued the Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Business Forms and Models of Foreign Trade to build up new growth drivers for foreign trade. The Ministry of Commerce, together with local governments and other ministries, has spared no effort to see through relevant policies and measures and made a solid step toward high-quality development of foreign trade.
First, scale of import and export grew fast. In January-July, the volume of import and export reached 21.34 trillion yuan, with export standing at 11.66 trillion yuan and import 9.68 trillion yuan, all hitting a new record high compared with the same period in the past. The total import and export grew by 24.5% year-on-year, with export up 24.5% and import 24.4% year-on-year , all reaching a ten-year high. Two-year average growth rates were 10.6%, 10.9% and 10.2% respectively. In July, import and export reached 3.27 trillion yuan, the second highest in a single month in history (second only to 3.29 trillion yuan in June this year).
Second, international market demand continued to recover. Traditional markets grew steadily. Exports to the United States, the European Union, Japan and other traditional markets grew by a combined 22.6%, pulling up the overall export growth rate by 11.5 percentage points. Trade cooperation with emerging markets continued to deepen. Exports to ASEAN, Latin America, Africa and other emerging markets grew by a total of 26.5%, accounting for 0.8 percentage points higher than the same period last year to 49.8%, pulling up the overall export growth rate by 13 percentage points.
Third, market entities of all sorts were full of vitality. From January to July, exports of private enterprises grew by 30.1%, accounting for 56.8%, 2.4 percentage points higher than the same period last year, raising the overall export growth rate by 16.4 percentage points. Exports of state-owned enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises grew by 16.7% and 17.9% respectively. More than 110,000 new exporters were registered for the record, with private enterprises accounting for nearly 95% of the total.
Fourth, the structure of export commodities continued to improve. From January to June, exports of electrical and mechanical products increased by 25.5% year-on-year, accounting for 59%, 0.5 percentage points higher than the same period last year, pulling up export growth rate by 14.9 percentage points. From January to June, exports of intermediate goods grew by 34% year-on-year, accounting for 50.7%, up by 2.2 percentage points, providing strong support for the global economic and trade recovery.
Fifth, multiple trade modes flourished. Exports in general trade increased by 1.5 percentage points to 61.1% compared to the same period last year, with a more solid industrial base and enhanced capacity for independent development. Exports of processing trade increased by 12.3% year-on-year, and the regional layout was further improved. Exports of other trade modes increased by 35.2% year-on-year, including 22.6% growth in exports of small-scale cross-border trade.
Sixth, the new growth drivers for foreign trade continued to strengthen. New business forms of foreign trade maintained a high-speed growth. From January to June, exports of cross-border e-commerce grew by 44.1% year-on-year, while exports of market sourcing trade grew by 49.1% year-on-year, pulling up the overall export growth rate by 4.2 percentage points. From January to July, exports of automobiles grew by 102.5% year-on-year, a record high growth rate for the same period in history, raising the overall export growth rate by 0.6 percentage points.
As imports and exports registered a rapid growth, we are also conscious of the fact that the pandemic is still wreaking havoc. The risks in the supply and industry chains are increasing. The tendency of politicizing trade issues is intensifying. Economic recovery is faced with great uncertainties. We will continue to pay attention to the changes in the macro environment of foreign trade development and the difficulties of the entities at the micro level, and continue to promote the import and export of quality goods, trade-industry integration and unimpeded trade, and strive to accomplish the goal of stabilizing the quantity and enhance the quality of foreign trade.
(source: MOFCOM)