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At a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council on the 12th, Li Kuiwen, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs, pointed out that in the first three quarters of 2018, the total value of China's import and export of goods trade was 22.28 trillion billion yuan, an increase of 9.9 percent over the same period last year. Although Sino-US economic and trade frictions have caused certain troubles and impacts on my country's foreign trade development, the direct and indirect impacts are generally controllable.


Li Kuiwen said that since the beginning of this year, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, all regions and departments have actively implemented a series of policies and measures to promote the stable growth of foreign trade, and properly responded to the difficulties and challenges faced by the development of foreign trade. my country's foreign trade has been operating smoothly. There is progress in stability.


Li Kuiwen pointed out that according to customs statistics, in the first three quarters of 2018, the total value of my country's imports and exports of goods trade was 22.28 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.9 percent over the same period last year. Among them, exports were 11.86 trillion yuan, up 6.5 percent, imports were 10.42 trillion yuan, up 14.1 percent, and the trade surplus was 1.44 trillion yuan, down 28.3 percent. Specifically, it has the following characteristics:


First, the value of imports and exports increased quarter by quarter, and the year-on-year growth rate in the third quarter was significantly higher. In the first three quarters of 2018, the value of China's imports and exports increased quarter by quarter to 6.76 trillion yuan, 7.35 trillion yuan and 8.17 trillion yuan, up 9.4 percent, 6.4 percent and 13.8 percent, respectively.


Second, the rapid growth of general trade imports and exports, the proportion of rising. In the first three quarters of 2018, my country's general trade imports and exports were 13.02 trillion billion yuan, an increase of 13.5 percent, accounting for 58.4 percent of my country's total import and export value, an increase of 1.9 percentage points over the same period last year, and the structure of trade methods has been optimized.


The third is the growth of imports and exports to major trading partners, and the growth of imports and exports with some countries along the "Belt and Road" is better. In the first three quarters of 2018, China's imports and exports to the EU, the United States and ASEAN increased by 7.3 percent, 6.5 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively, accounting for 41.2 percent of China's total import and export value. During the same period, China's imports and exports to some countries along the "Belt and Road Initiative" route, such as Russia, Poland and Kazakhstan, increased by 19.4, 11.9 and 11.8 respectively, all higher than the overall growth rate.


Fourth, the import and export of private enterprises increased, and the proportion increased. In the first three quarters of 2018, the import and export of my country's private enterprises was 8.77 trillion billion yuan, an increase of 12.9 percent, accounting for 39.4 percent of my country's total import and export value, an increase of 1 percentage point over the same period last year. Among them, exports were 5.68 trillion billion yuan, an increase of 9.6 percent, accounting for 47.9 percent of the total export value, continuing to maintain the top position in export share, with an increase of 1.4 percentage points; imports were 3.09 trillion billion yuan, an increase of 19.5 percent.


Fifth, the growth rate of imports and exports in the central, western and northeastern regions is higher than that of the whole country, and regional development is more coordinated. In the first three quarters of 2018, the growth rate of foreign trade in 12 western provinces and cities was 16.3, 6.4 percentage points higher than the national growth rate; the growth rate of foreign trade in 6 central provinces and cities was 13.9, 4 percentage points higher than the national growth rate; the growth rate of foreign trade in the three northeastern provinces was 12.4, 2.5 percentage points higher than the national growth rate; and the growth rate of foreign trade in 10 eastern provinces and cities was 9%.


Sixth, mechanical and electrical products and labor-intensive products are still the main export force. In the first three quarters of 2018, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products totaled 6.91 trillion billion yuan, an increase of 7.8 percent, accounting for 58.3 percent of China's total exports. Among them, automobile exports increased by 16.3, mobile phone exports increased by 15.2. During the same period, exports of seven categories of labor-intensive products, such as clothing and toys, totaled 2.29 trillion billion yuan, down 0.8 percent, accounting for 19.3 percent of the total export value.


Seventh, the import prices of commodities such as crude oil, natural gas and copper rose. In the first three quarters of 2018, China imported 0.803 billion tons of iron ore, down 1.6 percent; 0.336 billion tons of crude oil, up 5.9 percent; 70.01 million tons of soybeans, down 2 percent; 64.78 million tons of natural gas, up 34 percent; and 24.59 million tons of refined oil, up 9.8 percent. In addition, 3.99 million tons of copper were imported, an increase of 16.1 per cent. Over the same period, China's import prices rose by 4.2 per cent overall. Among them, crude oil rose 28.3 per cent, refined oil rose 19 per cent, natural gas rose 16.9 per cent and copper rose 6.1 per cent.


Li Kuiwen stressed: on the whole, since the beginning of this year, the operation of China's foreign trade has been generally stable, with steady progress, and the high-quality development of foreign trade has been promoted in an orderly manner, although there are still some uncertain and unstable factors in the field of international economy and trade, especially the economic and trade frictions between China and the United States have caused certain troubles and impacts on the development of China's foreign trade, but the direct and indirect impacts are generally controllable.