China’s foreign trade goes against the trend-looking at the economy through the ＂troika＂

　　On August 14th, the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the national economy continued to operate in a reasonable range in July, maintaining a generally stable, steady and progressive development trend. Among them, the strong performance of foreign trade has become a bright spot: in July, the total volume of imports, exports and exports was the highest in a single month since this year, and the growth rate of both was also faster than that of last month.

　　The the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Conference held recently demanded that the economic and trade frictions should be effectively dealt with and the "six stability" work should be done comprehensively.

　　Since the beginning of this year, in the face of complicated and severe domestic and international situations, China has made great efforts to do a good job of "six stabilities" including stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment, so as to promote the stability and quality improvement of foreign trade. In the long run, the trend of China’s foreign trade structure optimization and power conversion acceleration will not change, and its strong resilience will be further manifested.

　　On the toughness of foreign trade in "one liter and one drop"

　　Against the background of increasing global economic and trade risks and uncertainties, the total import and export volume of China in July was 2,738.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.7%; From January to July, the total import and export volume was 17,408.3 billion yuan, up by 4.2%. What do you think of this achievement?

　　Vertically, this is an excellent performance. In July, the import and export value hit a new high in a single month this year, and the growth rate was 2.6 percentage points higher than that of the previous month, which was the highest in the past three months.

　　Horizontally, this is a hard-won achievement. At present, protectionism and unilateralism are escalating and global trade is weak. In the update of the World Economic Outlook Report released a few days ago, the International Monetary Fund drastically lowered its forecast for the growth rate of global trade volume this year by 0.9 percentage points to 2.5%, far lower than last year’s 3.7%, the lowest point in three years. "In this context, China’s foreign trade has maintained steady growth, showing its strong resilience." Zhang Jianping, deputy director of the Academic Committee of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce and director of the Regional Economic Research Center, told the reporter of People’s Daily Overseas Edition.

　　Outside the whole, look at exports and imports respectively. From January to July, exports reached 9,475.8 billion yuan, an increase of 6.7%. Among them, the export in July was 1,524.2 billion yuan, the highest level in a single month since this year; It increased by 10.3%, 4.3 percentage points faster than last month, and reached a new high in the past four months.

　　Liu Aihua, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics, pointed out that under the effect of a series of policies to stabilize foreign trade, trade diversification and trade facilitation measures have been effective continuously. The export performance is not bad whether it is accumulated from January to July or the data of the month of July, indicating that the impact of Sino-US economic and trade friction is generally controllable.

　　In terms of imports, imports in July reached 1,214 billion yuan, a six-month high; It increased by 0.4%, compared with a decrease of 0.4% last month. From January to July, imports reached 7,932.5 billion yuan, an increase of 1.3%.

　　"Imports have shown two positive changes: the growth rate has rebounded for two consecutive months, and the import of high-quality consumer goods has continued to grow rapidly, thanks to the stable and positive performance of China’s economy, the upgrading of domestic consumption and the release of policy dividends." Zhang Jianping said.

　　The achievements in structural optimization are tangible.

　　In addition to the improvement in quantity and speed, China’s foreign trade has also performed well in terms of quality and efficiency.

　　A few days ago, the assembly box area in land port, Changchun was busy. Boxes of floors, car windshields, brake pads and monitors are exported to Russia, Germany and other places through the China-Europe train. "Changchun and other northeastern cities in China have gathered a number of top automobile manufacturers and their supporting spare parts enterprises, and Bavaria, where Nuremberg is located, is a major town of German automobile manufacturing, so industrial clusters with similar structures can produce great linkage effects." Demi Ben, general manager of Changchun land port German Co., Ltd. said. Up to now, "Changman Europe" has carried more than 43,000 TEUs of imported and exported goods, with the value exceeding 13.8 billion yuan.

　　See a leopard in a glimpse. In the first seven months of this year, the level of trade facilitation between China and countries along the "Belt and Road" continued to improve, with the import and export increasing by 10.2%, driving the overall import and export growth by 2.8 percentage points. Imports and exports with traditional trading partners, EU and ASEAN, increased by 10.8% and 11.3% respectively. In the first half of the year, China’s import and export with 25 trading partners that signed free trade agreements increased by 3.8%.

　　The optimization of the structure is not only in the international market layout, but also in the domestic regional layout. From January to July, the export of the central and western regions increased by 13.8%, 7.1 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, and the proportion increased by 1.1 percentage points to 17.5%.

　　Endogenous motivation is constantly increasing. In the first half of the year, the number of private enterprises with import and export performance reached 336,000, an increase of 8.5%, accounting for nearly 80%. From January to July, the import and export of private enterprises increased by 11.8%, accounting for 42% of the total import and export, an increase of 2.9 percentage points over the same period of last year.

　　The commodity structure is constantly upgrading. The export of mechanical and electrical products increased by 6.1%, 0.8 percentage points faster than that in January-June. Among them, the export of high-tech, high-quality and high value-added products such as integrated circuits, metal processing machine tools, excavators and medical devices all maintained double-digit growth. At the same time, the import of high-quality consumer goods achieved rapid growth.

　　"Since this year, foreign trade has been in ‘ Quality ’ The progress made in this regard is gratifying. " Zhang Jianping said that the competitiveness of general trade has been continuously enhanced, the export of high-tech products has increased significantly, private enterprises have become the "main force" of import and export, and trading partners have been expanding continuously. These achievements are all real.

　　Stable foreign trade policy reserves are still sufficient.

　　Achievements are worthy of recognition, and challenges cannot be ignored. In Zhang Jianping’s view, at present, the global trade tension is escalating, and finally the demand is weak and the growth momentum is weakened. In the face of challenges, the most important thing is to do your own thing, maintain strategic strength, and promote the stability and quality of foreign trade.

　　The the State Council executive meeting held not long ago determined the measures to further stabilize foreign trade: to study and continue to reduce the overall level of import tariffs, improve the export tax rebate policy, and speed up the tax rebate process. Give full play to the role of export credit insurance, promote the expansion of coverage, reasonably reduce premiums, and study and propose special types of insurance that meet the needs of enterprises; Guide financial institutions to increase foreign trade financing support for small and medium-sized enterprises; Create conditions to improve the convenience of RMB settlement. Accelerate the development of new formats such as cross-border e-commerce and bonded maintenance of processing trade, and cultivate import trade demonstration zones. Great breakthroughs have been made in simplifying the supervision documents of import and export links, shortening customs clearance time and reducing port charges.

　　The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce introduced that since the beginning of this year, various departments and localities have increased policy support and actively cultivated new trade formats and new models. The third batch of 22 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test zones was accelerated. In the first half of the year, the import and export of cross-border e-commerce retail increased rapidly. The first batch of used cars were successfully exported in July, and the export scale is expected to expand rapidly in the second half of the year. In the next step, bonded maintenance projects for processing trade will continue to land, further attracting processing, manufacturing and production services with higher technical level and greater value-added content to China.

　　Zhang Jianping believes that China’s policy reserves are still sufficient, and with the accelerated introduction and landing of more policies and measures to stabilize foreign trade, the endogenous motivation of enterprises will be further enhanced. At the same time, enterprises themselves need to work harder to enhance product competitiveness, actively expand the market and actively resist external risks.

　　"China’s foreign trade is large, resilient and has sufficient stamina. We rely on the integrity of the domestic industrial chain, the huge domestic market, the diversity of the international market, the sufficient endogenous motivation of the main body and the continuous optimization of the structure." Zhu Yong, deputy director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that he believed that through joint efforts, foreign trade could be improved steadily this year. (People’s Daily Overseas Edition reporter Qiu Haifeng)