According to customs statistics, the total import and export value of China's goods trade in 2019 was 31.54 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.4% compared to 2018. Among them, exports reached 17.23 trillion yuan, an increase of 5%; Imports reached 14.31 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.6%; The trade surplus was 2.92 trillion yuan, expanding by 25.4%.
On January 14th, Zou Zhiwu, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Customs, stated at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that in the past year, despite the significant increase in domestic and international risks and challenges, China's foreign trade imports and exports have achieved stable growth in quantity and steady improvement in quality, and are expected to continue to maintain its position as the world's largest country in goods trade. According to WTO data from the first 10 months of last year, China's exports performed the best among the top 10 trading countries in the world.
In December, the scale of imports and exports, exports, and imports all reached monthly peaks
According to customs statistics, the scale of China's foreign trade imports and exports increased quarter by quarter in 2019, reaching 3.01 trillion yuan in December, with a double-digit year-on-year growth rate of 12.7%. Among them, exports reached 1.67 trillion yuan, an increase of 9%; Imports reached 1.34 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.7%. In December, the scale of foreign trade imports and exports, exports, and imports all reached a monthly historical peak.
In 2019, the proportion of China's general trade imports and exports increased, accounting for 59% of China's total foreign trade value, an increase of 1.2 percentage points from 2018. Among export commodities, mechanical and electrical products account for nearly 60%. The import volume of bulk commodities such as iron ore, crude oil, natural gas, and soybeans has increased.
"Last year, China's foreign trade developed with high quality and showed a clear trend of stabilizing and improving quality. The trade mode structure continued to optimize, new trade momentum significantly enhanced, and international competitive advantages significantly improved." Zou Zhiwu said, "In 2019, China's export commodity price index increased by 2.8%, import commodity price index increased by 1.4%, and trade terms index was 101.4, indicating that we can exchange more goods for the same amount of goods we export.". The export of some high value-added products maintains a good growth trend According to WTO data, from January to September 2019, China's electromechanical products and labor-intensive products increased their global market share by 0.2 and 0.9 percentage points, respectively.
Analyzing the reasons for China's counter trend growth in foreign trade, Zou Zhiwu believes that there are mainly three aspects:
The first is the stability of the domestic economy. The basic trend of stable and long-term economic growth in our country has not changed. From the data of the first 11 months of last year, the added value of industries above designated size nationwide increased by 5.6% year on year, the total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 8% year on year, and fixed assets investment increased by 5.2% year on year. The GDP of the whole year will still maintain a rapid growth, significantly ahead of other major economies in the world. The super large scale market advantage and domestic demand potential have laid a solid foundation for the growth of foreign trade.
The second is that the overall resilience of China's economy is relatively strong. China is the world's largest manufacturing country with a complete industrial system. The production of over 220 industrial products ranks first in the world, providing strong support for the development of foreign trade.
The third is the sustained release of the effect of stabilizing foreign trade policies. The unprecedented scale of tax and fee reduction policies has effectively reduced the burden on enterprises. At the same time, China is comprehensively deepening the reform of "streamlining administration, delegating powers, and improving services", effectively stimulating the vitality of market entities, continuously optimizing the business environment at ports, and improving the level of cross-border trade facilitation.
New business formats are flourishing, and new momentum is significantly enhanced
According to customs statistics, China's new forms of foreign trade such as cross-border e-commerce continued to maintain a vigorous development trend last year, with imports and exports through the customs cross-border e-commerce management platform reaching 186.21 billion yuan, an increase of 38.3%. The import and export through market procurement amounted to 562.95 billion yuan, an increase of 19.7%. The combined contribution rate of the two to the overall growth of foreign trade is nearly 14%. The new momentum of trade has significantly increased.
In 2019, private enterprises surpassed foreign-invested enterprises for the first time and became the largest entity in China's foreign trade. The annual import and export of private enterprises reached 13.48 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.4%, accounting for 42.7% of China's total foreign trade value, an increase of 3.1 percentage points from 2018. Among them, exports reached 8.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 13%; Imports reached 4.58 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.4%.
Zou Zhiwu introduced that in 2019, the number of private enterprises with import and export performance in China reached 406000, an increase of 8.7% compared to the previous year. The significant increase in the number of private enterprises reflects the continuous optimization of the domestic business environment, which is an important manifestation of China's endogenous driving force and development vitality in foreign trade. In 2019, the import and export of private enterprises increased by 11.4%, driving foreign trade growth by 4.5 percentage points.
From the customs data, with the help of the "the Belt and Road" initiative and the comparative advantage of regional comprehensive costs, the import and export of private enterprises in the central and western regions grew faster. In 2019, the import and export growth rates of private enterprises in the central and western regions reached 28.3% and 22.4%, respectively, which were 19.5 percentage points and 13.6 percentage points higher than those in the eastern region.
"The customs conscientiously implements the central decision-making and deployment, and strives to create a better development environment for private enterprises," said Zou Zhiwu. For example, the customs introduced a tariff guarantee insurance reform, which incorporated commercial insurance mechanisms into tax payments. Private enterprises benefited the most from this reform and participated the most.
The scale of trade with countries along the the Belt and Road continues to expand
Last year, while continuing to cultivate traditional export markets, export enterprises continued to explore emerging markets with significant results. The ranking of major trading partners has changed, and ASEAN has become China's second largest trading partner. Specifically, in 2019, China's imports and exports to its largest trading partner, the European Union, amounted to 4.86 trillion yuan, an increase of 8%; Import and export to ASEAN reached 4.43 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.1%; Import and export to the United States amounted to 3.73 trillion yuan, a decrease of 10.7%.
In addition, according to customs statistics, China's import and export to countries along the "the Belt and Road" in 2019 was 9.27 trillion yuan, up 10.8%, 7.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, accounting for nearly 30% of the total import and export value, up 2 percentage points from 2018.
"Since the 'the Belt and Road' initiative was put forward, China's trade with countries along the 'the Belt and Road' has continued to expand." Zou Zhiwu introduced that from 2014 to 2019, China's trade with countries along the 'the Belt and Road' totaled more than 44 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth of 6.1%. China has become the largest trading partner of 25 countries along the 'Belt and Road'. Last year, the General Administration of Customs signed 198 cooperation documents on customs inspection and quarantine, 89 involving countries along the "the Belt and Road". As of last year, China Customs has signed AEO mutual recognition arrangements with 42 countries (regions) of 15 economies, ranking first in the world in terms of the number of countries (regions) that have received mutual recognition, including 18 countries along the "the Belt and Road".
At the same time, the customs continues to optimize the business environment at ports, further simplifying import and export supervision documents, and reducing the number of supervision documents verified at ports from 86 to 44. At the same time, the reduction of statutory inspection catalogs and the implementation of first release and later inspection for imported bulk resource commodities have greatly reduced the detention time of enterprise goods.
Zou Zhiwu stated that the national customs will continue to optimize the business environment at ports. On the one hand, we will refine the reform measures that have been introduced and implement them effectively. On the other hand, we will research and develop more targeted reform plans based on the actual needs of enterprises, promoting customs management towards the goal of optimization, collaboration, and efficiency.