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On August 14, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the national economy continued to operate within a reasonable range in July, maintaining an overall stable and steady development trend. Among them, the strong performance of foreign trade has become a bright spot: in July, the total volume of imports and exports was the highest level in a single month so far this year, and the growth rate of both was also faster than that of the previous month. The recent meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee called for an effective response to economic and trade frictions and a comprehensive job of "six stability.

Since the beginning of this year, in the face of the complex and severe domestic and international situation, China has made great efforts to do a good job in the "six stability" work, including stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment, so as to promote the stability and quality of foreign trade. In the long run, the trend of optimizing China's foreign trade structure and accelerating power conversion will not change, and strong resilience will be further revealed.

　　"One rise and one drop" to see the resilience of foreign trade.

Against the background of increasing global economic and trade risks and uncertainties, China's total import and export volume in July was 2738.2 billion billion yuan, up 5.7 percent year-on-year; from January to July, the total import and export volume was 17408.3 billion billion yuan, up 4.2 percent. How do you see this achievement?

Vertically, this is an excellent performance. The value of imports and exports in July hit a monthly high this year, and the growth rate was 2.6 percentage points faster than the previous month, the highest in the past three months.

Looking horizontally, this is a hard-won achievement. At present, protectionism and unilateralism are escalating and global trade is weak. In an update to its World Economic Outlook report, the International Monetary Fund slashed its forecast for global trade growth this year by 0.9 percentage points to 2.5 percent, down from 3.7 percent last year and a three-year low. "In this context, China's foreign trade still maintains steady growth, showing its strong resilience." Zhang Jianping, deputy director of the Academic Committee of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce and director of the Regional Economic Research Center, told our reporter.

Outside of the whole, look at exports and imports separately. From January to July, exports were 9475.8 billion billion yuan, up 6.7 percent. Among them, exports in July were 1524.2 billion billion yuan, the highest level in a single month this year; an increase of 10.3 percent, 4.3 percentage points faster than the previous month and a new high in nearly four months.

Liu Aihua, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, pointed out that under the influence of a series of policies to stabilize foreign trade, trade diversification and trade facilitation measures have continued to be effective. Whether it is the cumulative data from January to July or the monthly data in July, the export performance is still good. It shows that the impact of Sino-US economic and trade frictions is generally controllable.

In terms of imports, imports in July were 1214 billion yuan, a new high in nearly six months; an increase of 0.4 per cent, compared with a decline of 0.4 per cent last month. From January to July, imports were 7932.5 billion yuan, up 1.3 percent.

"Imports have shown positive changes in two aspects: the growth rate has rebounded for two consecutive months, and the import of high-quality consumer goods has continued to grow rapidly. This is due to the steady and positive performance of China's economy, the upgrading of domestic consumption and the release of policy dividends." Zhang Jianping said.

　　Structural optimization results are real

In addition to the increase in quantity and speed, China's foreign trade has also performed well in terms of quality and efficiency.

A few days ago, the assembly box area of Changchun International Dry Port was busy. Boxes of floors, car windshields, brake pads, and displays are exported to Russia, Germany and other places through the China-Europe train. "Changchun and other cities in Northeast China have gathered a number of top automobile manufacturers and supporting spare parts enterprises, while Bavaria, where Nuremberg is located, is an important city of German automobile manufacturing industry. Such industrial clusters with similar structure can have a great linkage effect." Changchun International Dry Port Germany Co., Ltd. general manager Demi Ben said. Up to now, "Changman Europe" has carried more than 43000 TEUs of import and export goods with a value of over 13.8 billion yuan.

Specular see leopard. In the first seven months of this year, the level of trade facilitation between my country and the countries along the "Belt and Road" continued to improve, with imports and exports increasing by 10.2, driving overall import and export growth by 2.8 percentage points. Imports and exports with traditional trading partners the EU and ASEAN increased by 10.8 per cent and 11.3 per cent respectively. In the first half of the year, China's imports and exports with 25 trading partners that signed free trade agreements increased by 3.8.

The optimization of the structure is not only in the international market layout, but also in the domestic regional layout. From January to July, exports from the central and western regions increased by 13.8, 7.1 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, and their share increased by 1.1 percentage points to 17.5 percent.

Endogenous power is increasing. In the first half of the year, the number of private enterprises with import and export performance reached 336000, an increase of 8.5 percent, accounting for nearly 80 percent. From January to July, the import and export of private enterprises increased by 11.8, accounting for 42% of the total import and export, an increase of 2.9 percentage points over the same period last year.

The commodity structure is constantly upgrading. The export of mechanical and electrical products increased by 6.1, 0.8 percentage points faster than that in January-June. Among them, the export of high-tech, high-quality, and high-value-added products such as integrated circuits, metal processing machine tools, excavators, and medical equipment has maintained double-digit growth. At the same time, imports of high-quality consumer goods achieved rapid growth.

"The progress made in the 'quality' aspect of foreign trade this year is gratifying." Zhang Jianping said that the general trade competitiveness has continued to increase, the export of high-tech products has increased significantly, private enterprises have become the "main force" of import and export, and trading partners continue to expand. These achievements are all tangible.

　　Stable foreign trade policy reserves are still sufficient.

Achievements deserve recognition and challenges cannot be ignored. In Zhang Jianping's view, global trade tensions are currently escalating, final demand is weak and growth momentum is weakening. In the face of challenges, the most important thing is to do your own thing, maintain strategic determination, and promote the stability and quality of foreign trade.

The executive meeting of the State Council held not long ago determined measures to further stabilize foreign trade: study to continue to reduce the overall level of import tariffs, improve the export tax rebate policy, and speed up the progress of tax rebates. Give better play to the role of export credit insurance, promote the expansion of coverage, reasonably reduce premiums, study and propose special insurance types that meet the needs of enterprises; guide financial institutions to increase foreign trade financing support for small and medium-sized enterprises; create conditions to improve the convenience of RMB settlement. Accelerate the development of cross-border e-commerce, processing trade bonded maintenance and other new formats, and cultivate import trade demonstration zones. Greater breakthroughs have been made in simplifying import and export supervision documents, reducing customs clearance time, and reducing port charges.

The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce introduced that since this year, various departments and localities have increased policy support and actively cultivated new trade formats and new models. The construction of the third batch of 22 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones was accelerated. In the first half of the year, the import and export of cross-border e-commerce retail increased rapidly. The first batch of second-hand cars were successfully exported in July, and the export scale is expected to expand rapidly in the second half of the year. In the next step, the bonded maintenance project of processing trade will continue to be implemented, further attracting the transfer of processing, manufacturing and production services with higher technical level and greater value-added content to China.

Zhang Jianping believes that China's policy reserves are still sufficient. With the accelerated introduction and landing of more stable foreign trade policies and measures, the endogenous power of enterprises will be further enhanced. At the same time, enterprises themselves also need to work harder to enhance product competitiveness, actively expand the market, and actively resist external risks.

"China's foreign trade volume is large, resilient, and stamina is sufficient. We rely on the integrity of the domestic industrial chain, the huge domestic market, the diversification of the international market, the sufficient endogenous power of the main body, and the continuous optimization of the structure." Zhu Yong, deputy director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that he believes that through joint efforts, we can achieve stable and improved quality of foreign trade this year.

(Source: People's Network)