In the first half of the year, the total import and export value of goods trade was 18.07 trillion yuan, an increase of 27.1% over the same period last year, and the import and export scale reached the best level in the same period in history. On July 13, the State Information Office held a press conference on the import and export situation in the first half of the year. At the conference, it was introduced that China's achievements in coordinating epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development have been continuously consolidated, and its foreign trade import and export have been stable, good and good. Li Kuiwen, spokesman of the General Administration of customs and director of the Department of statistics and analysis, said that the domestic economy has strengthened and improved steadily, and the vitality of market players has increased, which has provided strong support for the sustained and stable growth of foreign trade, and the import and export of the whole year is expected to maintain rapid growth.

Imports and exports have been growing for 13 consecutive months

According to customs statistics, the export of goods trade in the first half of the year was 9.85 trillion yuan, an increase of 28.1% over the same period last year; Imports reached 8.22 trillion yuan, an increase of 25.9%. Compared with the same period in 2019, import and export, export and import increased by 22.8%, 23.8% and 21.7% respectively.

In June, China's foreign trade import and export reached 3.29 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22%, which is the 13th consecutive month since June 2020.

From the perspective of trading countries, the import and export growth momentum with major trading partners is good. In the first half of the year, China's imports and exports to the top three trading partners ASEAN, the European Union and the United States were 2.66 trillion yuan, 2.52 trillion yuan and 2.21 trillion yuan respectively, an increase of 27.8%, 26.7% and 34.6% respectively. Import and export of one belt, one road, and RCEP trading partners increased by 27.5% and 22.7% respectively.

From the perspective of trade mode, the import and export of general trade increased rapidly. In the first half of the year, China's general trade import and export reached 11.19 trillion yuan, an increase of 30.7%, accounting for 61.9% of China's total foreign trade, an increase of 1.7 percentage points over the same period last year. The import and export of processing trade was 3.89 trillion yuan, an increase of 15.8%, accounting for 21.5%.

From the perspective of product structure, the export proportion of mechanical and electrical products has increased. In the first half of the year, China exported 5.83 trillion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, an increase of 29.5%, accounting for 59.2% of the total export value, an increase of 0.6 percentage points over the same period last year; Among them, the export of automatic data processing equipment and its parts, mobile phones and automobiles increased by 17%, 23.3% and 101.4% respectively. Over the same period, the export of labor-intensive products increased by 17.1%, and the export of pharmaceutical materials and drugs increased by 93.6%.

"On the whole, China's foreign trade continued the good momentum of the second half of last year in the first half of the year, with a rapid growth rate, which laid a good foundation for the steady improvement of the volume and quality of foreign trade throughout the year," Li Kuiwen said.

The foreign trade development toughness of private enterprises is sufficient

Expanding the market, increasing orders, reducing costs and strengthening R & D... in recent years, the import and export performance of private enterprises has been outstanding. Data show that in the first half of the year, the import and export of China's private enterprises reached 8.64 trillion yuan, an increase of 35.1%, accounting for 47.8% of the total foreign trade value, an increase of 2.8 percentage points over the same period last year, and continued to rank as the largest foreign trade operator in China.

"Private enterprises give full play to the advantages of independent and flexible production and operation, keenly capture market opportunities, quickly respond to domestic and international market demand, and show more vitality and toughness for foreign trade development," Li Kuiwen said.

In the first half of the year, the growth rates of import and export, import and export of private enterprises were 8, 7.5 and 8.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of foreign trade respectively. Among them, the export value of household appliances, computers, pharmaceutical materials and drugs increased by 46.2%, 38.7% and 70.8% respectively; The export value of metal ores and ores, unwrought copper and copper products, cosmetics and other commodities increased by 66%, 65.2% and 38.8% respectively.

At the same time, the import and export of private enterprises also showed obvious highlights: the number of private enterprises with import and export performance increased. In the first half of the year, there were 397000 private enterprises with import and export performance, an increase of 37000 year-on-year, accounting for 82.8% of the total number of import and export performance enterprises.

Regional development has become more coordinated. In the first half of the year, the import and export growth rate of private enterprises in the central and western regions reached 44.6%, 9.5 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of private enterprises. Among the top 10 provinces in terms of import and export growth of private enterprises, 8 are from the central and western regions.

Market development has been strengthened. The import and export of private enterprises to traditional markets such as the European Union, the United States, Japan and South Korea increased by 31.4%, 45.7%, 19.8% and 28.3% respectively. Meanwhile, private enterprises one belt, one road, the growth of imports and exports of 34.5%, including 37.3% growth in imports and exports to ASEAN.

It is expected to maintain a rapid growth rate throughout the year
What are the reasons for the continuous growth in 13 months, the best level in the same period in history, and the continuous consolidation of the steady growth trend of foreign trade? What do you think of the future trend?

"First of all, the domestic economy has strengthened and improved steadily, and the vitality of market players has increased, which has provided strong support for the sustained and stable growth of foreign trade." Li Kuiwen said that in the first half of the year, China's economy recovered steadily, major economic indicators such as industrial added value, fixed asset investment and total retail sales of social consumer goods continued to improve, and production demand continued to pick up, This has laid a solid foundation for steady growth of foreign trade.

The dividend of the national policy of stabilizing foreign trade continued to be released, the high-level open platform grew rapidly, and the advantages of new trade forms and models were highlighted. The data show that in the first half of the year, the import and export of the comprehensive bonded zone increased by 29.1%, the import and export of the pilot free trade zone increased by 32.1%, and the import and export of Hainan free trade port increased by 46.1%, which were significantly higher than the overall growth rate of foreign trade. Over the same period, the import and export of cross-border e-commerce increased by 28.6%, and the export of market procurement increased by 49.1%. Foreign trade enterprises have made full efforts to promote production and stabilize foreign trade, further consolidating the good development momentum of foreign trade.

Secondly, the sustained recovery of the global economy has led to an increase in external demand. Last year's low base and price factors also played a driving role in the growth of foreign trade to a certain extent. It is preliminarily estimated that in the first half of this year, the contribution rate of prices to import growth was 35.4%.

Novel coronavirus pneumonia is still spreading worldwide, Li Kuiwen said. The trend of the epidemic is perplexing, and the uncertainties and unstable factors facing the development of foreign trade are still more. Meanwhile, in the second half of last year, China's foreign trade import and export increased by nearly 27% over the first half of last year. Under the influence of a high base, the year-on-year growth of import and export in the second half of this year may slow down, but the import and export of the whole year is still expected to maintain rapid growth.