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　　More balanced development of foreign trade

Liang Ming, director of the Foreign Trade Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out in an interview with the Economic Daily that China's foreign trade had some outstanding characteristics in the first half of the year, especially the trend of continuous optimization of foreign trade structure.

On the whole, the scale of China's foreign trade has reached a record high. Whether denominated in RMB or US dollars, China's total foreign trade import and export volume, export volume and import volume all reached a record high in the first half of this year. In US dollars, my country's total foreign trade import and export volume in the first half of the year was 184.99 billion US dollars more than the historical high value in 2014; in RMB, it was 981.49 billion yuan more than the historical high value last year.

Liang Ming said that due to factors such as my country's active expansion of imports and rising prices of some bulk commodities, my country's import performance has continued to be better than exports in the recent period. Since the third quarter of 2016, China has shown a narrowing trend of trade surplus for eight consecutive quarters.

Ju Jiandong, director of the International Finance and Economic Research Center of Tsinghua University, said that the narrowing of the foreign trade surplus in the first half of the year accelerated. On the one hand, it was related to factors such as the acceleration of domestic import growth, the simplification of import processes, and the decline in import tariffs. "This is a good thing for us. You can buy high-quality goods with higher quality and better prices in China"; on the other hand, it is reflected in the adjustment of the export market structure.

Su Qingyi, deputy director of the International Trade Research Office of the Institute of world economics and politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the overall quality of China's foreign trade has increased in the first half of the year. From the perspective of countries, imports and exports with ASEAN are growing faster; from the perspective of trade methods, general trade is growing faster; from the perspective of domestic regions, it is the central and western regions that support this round of growth; from the perspective of the nature of enterprises, it is private Enterprises support growth.

　　Power conversion continues to accelerate

In the first half of the year, China's foreign trade power conversion has been accelerating. In this regard, Liang Ming said that whether it is foreign trade structure, quality or trading partners, the characteristics of continuous optimization of structure and accelerated power conversion are very prominent.

The first is the continued increase in the share of general trade. In the first half of the year, my country's general trade imports and exports were 1300.92 billion billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 20.6 percent, accounting for 59% of the total import and export value, accounting for an increase of 2.2 percentage points over the same period last year. The trade mode continued to be optimized.

The import and export of processing trade was 582.58 billion billion US dollars, an increase of 7.5 percent, accounting for 26.4 percent of China's total import and export value, down 2 percentage points from the same period last year.

At the same time, the characteristics of superior goods in and out are outstanding. In terms of exports, the export of some high-value-added mechanical and electrical products and high-tech products has maintained a good growth trend, and new advantages in foreign trade competition have gradually emerged. In the first half of the year, the export of mechanical and electrical products was 687.15 billion billion US dollars, an increase of 15 percent, accounting for 58.6 percent of the total export volume, an increase of 1.4 percentage points over the same period last year. The export of high-tech products increased by 18.3, 5.5 percentage points higher than the overall export growth rate. Seven categories of labor-intensive products accounted for 19% of total exports, down 1.5 percentage points from the same period last year. In terms of imports, the effect of the policy of expanding imports continued to show, and imports of some important equipment and key parts and high-quality consumer goods achieved rapid growth. In the first half of the year, imports of integrated circuits and metal processing machines increased by 13 per cent and 27.2 per cent respectively, imports of aquatic products increased by 12.4 per cent and pharmaceuticals by 8 per cent.

In addition, trading partners are becoming more diverse. Liang Ming pointed out that in the first half of the year, China's imports and exports to the top three trading partners, the European Union, the United States and ASEAN, increased by 13 percent, 13.1 percent and 19.3 percent respectively, accounting for 41 percent of China's total import and export value. China's imports and exports to Russia, India, South Africa and Brazil increased by 24.8 per cent, 15.1 per cent, 14.5 per cent and 24.3 per cent, respectively. In the same period, in terms of RMB, my country's imports and exports to 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe increased by 14.7, 6.8 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate. While imports and exports to traditional markets have rebounded in an all-round way, China's trade with countries along the "Belt and Road Initiative" route has achieved rapid growth, 2.5 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate.

　　Respond appropriately to uncertainty

When talking about the foreign trade situation in the second half of the year, the experts interviewed believed that favorable factors and uncertainties are more prominent, especially the need to properly deal with the uncertainty caused by Sino-US economic and trade frictions.

"The new advantages of my country's foreign trade are reflected in the great import potential, the potential for the optimization and upgrading of export products, and the ability to continue to expand the export market." Su Qingyi said that my country will host the China International Import Expo in November, which is an important measure to expand imports. In recent years, the upgrading trend of export products is good, and there is still great potential in the future. The export market is gradually diversified, and the situation of relying on the US and European markets is slowly changing.

"From the past period of time, the region where China's foreign trade has grown faster is Asia, and it may be the same in the future. Our economic and trade cooperation with Asian countries will be deeper, which may also be the core competitiveness of our foreign trade development in the future." Ju Jiandong said that strengthening economic and trade cooperation with Asian countries is also conducive to China's industrial restructuring.

"Foreign trade in the second half of the year is mainly the impact of the uncertainty of Sino-US economic and trade frictions." Ju Jiandong believes that in the short term, increasing tariffs will increase the risk of exports and will have a considerable impact and impact on exports. "But there is no need to be overly nervous. After all, the impact on the overall economic development is limited. We can adjust by exporting to other countries and regions and further expanding domestic demand."

Su Qingyi also said that the impact of Sino-US economic and trade frictions is mainly manifested in the short term, and the impact on small and medium-sized enterprises will be greater; in the long run, enterprises themselves will adjust according to the situation and use legal means to avoid it.