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On December 12, 2019, the head of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce talked about China's foreign trade from January to November 2019.

Since the beginning of this year, in the face of a complex situation in which external environmental risks and challenges have increased significantly, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, the Ministry of Commerce, together with all regions and departments, resolutely implemented the "six stability" decision-making arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, promptly introduced and implemented policies and measures to stabilize foreign trade, and continuously promoted the "five optimizations" and "three constructions, from January to November, foreign trade development continued to maintain a steady and qualitative trend.

　　Scale remains stable

From January to November, China's total import and export volume was 28.5 trillion yuan, up 2.4 percent. Among them, exports were 15.55 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.5 percent; imports were 12.95 trillion yuan, basically the same as the same period last year; and the trade surplus was 2.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 34.9 percent. Judging from the monthly scale, the total import and export volume in November was 2.86 trillion yuan, the highest level in a single month this year. From an international comparison, according to the latest WTO data, in the first three quarters, China's export growth rate was higher than the average growth rate of major global economies.

　　Continuous structural optimization

The layout of the international market was more reasonable and balanced, and imports and exports to emerging markets increased by 5.3, accounting for an increase of 1.7 percentage points to 59.5 compared with the same period last year. Among them, imports and exports with countries along the "Belt and Road" increased by 9.9, accounting for an increase of 2 percentage points to 29.3. Imports and exports to ASEAN, Latin America and Africa increased by 12.7 per cent, 6.8 per cent and 5.7 per cent, respectively. The domestic regional layout is more balanced, with exports from the central and western regions increasing by 13.3 per cent, accounting for 1.4 percentage points higher than the same period last year to 18.3 per cent. The commodity structure continued to be optimized, with exports of mechanical and electrical products increasing by 4 per cent, accounting for 58.4 per cent. The grades and added value of seven categories of labor-intensive products, including clothing, textiles, furniture, shoes, plastics, toys, and luggage, were improved, and exports increased by 5.7, driving export growth by 1.1 percentage points. The vitality of the main body of private enterprises continued to increase, and exports increased by 12.4, and their share increased by 3.6 percentage points to 51.4. General trade was resilient, with exports growing by 7.8, up 1.8 percentage points to 58 per cent.

　　Continuous quality improvement

The export of high-quality, high-tech and high-value-added products increased rapidly. Integrated circuits, photovoltaics, machine tools, medical devices and other export unit prices to achieve 2-digit growth. We will continue to promote institutional innovation, management innovation and service innovation, and further improve the business environment for the development of new foreign trade formats and new models. The import and export of cross-border e-commerce retail increased by 20%, and 35 comprehensive test areas led to the transformation and upgrading of 168 supporting parks and more than 10,000 enterprises to improve quality and efficiency. The number of overseas warehouses exceeds 1000, and the scope of service radiates around the world. Second-hand car export, processing trade bonded maintenance steadily. The new format has become a new bright spot in foreign trade growth and a new kinetic energy for transformation and upgrading.

Recently, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Trade, which clearly strengthened technological innovation, institutional innovation, model and business innovation, and promoted imports and exports, trade in goods and services, trade and two-way investment, trade and The coordinated development of industry will achieve high-quality trade development. In the next step, we will take the high-quality development of foreign trade as the command, enhance trade innovation capabilities, actively cultivate new business formats, optimize the layout of the international market, promote the upgrading and gradient transfer of processing trade, actively expand imports, effectively reduce trade institutional costs, and continue to improve trade Facilitate the level and create a good business environment.

(Source: Department of Commerce)