China’s foreign trade started smoothly and improved month by month.

　　Source: General Administration of Customs Cartography: Cai Huawei

　　According to customs statistics, in the first quarter, the total import and export value of China’s goods trade was 9.89 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%. China’s foreign trade started smoothly, showing a good trend month by month, and the growth rate of import and export increased month by month. Lv Daliang, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs and director of the Statistics and Analysis Department, said at the press conference of the State Council Office on April 13th that despite the severe and complicated external situation, China’s foreign trade still showed strong resilience. Comprehensive judgment shows that the goal of promoting stability and improving quality of foreign trade this year is supported.

　　The vitality of foreign trade entities has been further enhanced.

　　There were 457,000 foreign trade enterprises with import and export performance, up 5.9% year-on-year.

　　In January, affected by the Spring Festival holiday, imports and exports fell by 7%. From negative to positive in February, it increased by 8% in that month, and the year-on-year growth rate increased to 15.5% in March, showing a positive trend month by month. The overall growth in the first quarter was 4.8%, 2.6 percentage points higher than that in the fourth quarter of last year.

　　The number of foreign trade business entities has increased steadily, showing new vitality. In the first quarter, there were 457,000 foreign trade enterprises with import and export performance in China, up 5.9% year-on-year. Among them, there were 384,000 private enterprises, an increase of 7.5%, and the import and export volume was 5.18 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.4%, accounting for 52.4% of China’s total import and export value. In the same period, the import and export of foreign-invested enterprises was 3.04 trillion yuan, and the import and export of state-owned enterprises was 1.65 trillion yuan, accounting for 30.7% and 16.7% of the total import and export value respectively.

　　"Private enterprises have been the main force in China’s foreign trade development for four consecutive years." Lu Daliang introduced that in 2022, the proportion of private enterprises in China’s total import and export value reached 50.9%, and the annual proportion exceeded half for the first time. In the first quarter of this year, the foreign trade of private enterprises continued to maintain a rapid growth trend, and its proportion further increased.

　　Customs data show that in the first quarter, China’s general trade import and export was 6.46 trillion yuan, up 7.9% year-on-year, accounting for 65.3% of the total import and export value, up 1.9 percentage points from the same period last year. Among them, exports were 3.68 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.7%; Imports reached 2.78 trillion yuan, up 2.2%.

　　Exports of mechanical and electrical products and labor-intensive products have both increased. In the first quarter, the export of mechanical and electrical products in China was 3.27 trillion yuan, up 7.6% year-on-year, accounting for 57.9% of the total export value; Among them, the exports of automobiles, household appliances and batteries were 147.47 billion yuan, 141.24 billion yuan and 116.34 billion yuan, up by 96.6%, 3.2% and 84.8% respectively. In the same period, the export of labor-intensive products was 947.46 billion yuan, an increase of 5.7%.

　　The foreign trade structure was further optimized.

　　The total export of "new three samples" was 264.69 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 66.9%.

　　In the first quarter, China’s total exports of electric manned vehicles, lithium batteries and solar cells ("new three kinds") reached 264.69 billion yuan, up 66.9% year-on-year, accounting for 1.7 percentage points of China’s exports, reaching 4.7%.

　　In recent years, the global attention to new energy and green low-carbon fields has gradually increased, and the strong demand in the international market has also driven the export growth of green low-carbon products in China. Last year, the "new three samples" boosted the overall growth of China’s exports by 1.7 percentage points. This year, the pulling effect has further increased, and the overall growth of exports in the first quarter was 2 percentage points. In the first quarter, China’s "new three samples" exported to more than 200 countries and regions around the world, among which exports to the European Union, the United States, ASEAN, South Korea and the United Kingdom increased by 88.7%, 88.1%, 103.5%, 121.7% and 118.2% respectively.

　　In the first quarter, China’s central and western regions achieved import and export of 1.84 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.6%, and the scale reached a record high in the same period. Driven by the national regional coordinated development strategy, the central and western regions have sustained economic development, the proportion of foreign trade imports and exports has continued to increase, and the regional structure of China’s foreign trade has been further optimized.

　　"The central and western regions give play to their location advantages, promote cross-border transportation facilitation, and continuously improve channel operation and logistics efficiency." Lu Daliang said that in the first quarter, the import and export of the new land and sea passage in the west was 969.52 billion yuan, an increase of 10.1%. China-Laos Railway has played an increasingly significant role in China-ASEAN trade since its opening more than a year ago. In the first quarter of this year, it supervised and released 880,000 tons of import and export goods, an increase of 219%.

　　The scale of border trade through border crossings has steadily increased. In the first quarter, the total import and export of border trade and small-scale border trade was 89.7 billion yuan, a record high in the same period, up 111% year-on-year, and the proportion of foreign trade in central and western China increased by 2.3 percentage points year-on-year to 4.9%.

　　Foreign trade market expansion is more balanced.

　　Imports and exports to countries along the Belt and Road increased by 16.8%

　　In the first quarter, most of China’s top ten export markets maintained positive growth. Among them, exports to ASEAN, Japan and the European Union increased by 28%, 5.3% and 0.3% respectively, and the export growth rate to South Korea, India and Mexico exceeded double digits. The foreign trade regional market is further developed and more balanced.

　　"This year is ‘ Belt and Road ’ Tenth anniversary of the initiative. In the past ten years, China has been interested in ‘ Belt and Road ’ The proportion of imports and exports of countries along the route in China’s overall foreign trade has increased significantly from 25% in 2013 to 32.9% in 2022. " Lv Daliang said that in the first quarter, China’s import and export to countries along the Belt and Road increased by 16.8%, 12 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of China’s foreign trade in the same period; It accounted for 34.6% of the total import and export value, up 3.5 percentage points. Among them, the import and export to Southeast Asia, West Asia, North Africa, Central Asia and South Asia along the route increased by 16.1%, 12.5%, 32.2% and 4.1% respectively. In the first quarter, China’s import and export to countries along the "Belt and Road" increased by 24.6% and 61.8% respectively by railway and road transportation.

　　In the first quarter, China’s imports and exports to the other 14 member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) totaled 3.08 trillion yuan, up 7.3% year-on-year, accounting for 31.2% of China’s total foreign trade in the same period, and the proportion increased by 0.8 percentage points compared with the same period of last year. Lv Daliang analyzed that in the first quarter, China’s imports and exports to other RCEP member countries increased by more than 10% to seven, among which imports and exports to Singapore, Laos and Myanmar all increased by more than 20%, reaching 45.8%, 37.8% and 29% respectively.

　　Lv Daliang said that at present, the global economic instability, uncertainty and unpredictable risks are increasing, and China’s foreign trade development will face many difficulties and challenges. However, we must also see that China’s economy is strong in resilience, great in potential and full of vitality, and its long-term positive fundamentals remain unchanged. "I believe that with the continuous overall improvement of China’s economic operation, the positive momentum of foreign trade is expected to continue further." He said that the customs will further optimize and upgrade the relevant policies and measures according to the demands of enterprises this year, and will continue to release the dividends of policies and measures to better help foreign trade to promote stability and improve quality.