The Ministry Of Commerce Issued The Report On China'S Foreign Trade Situation (Spring 2020).

Recently, the Ministry of Commerce and the international trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute jointly issued the China foreign trade situation report (spring 2020) (hereinafter referred to as the "report"). The report reviewed the operation of China's foreign trade in the first 5 months of 2019 and 2020, and analyzed the development environment of China's foreign trade in 2020.

The report points out that in 2019, under the background of the global slowdown in overall economic and trade growth, China's foreign trade growth has reached a new high. According to statistics from the World Trade Organization (WTO), in 2019, China accounted for 13.2% of total exports of goods, representing 0.4 percentage points higher than the previous year, and exports accounted for a steady increase in international market share. Imports accounted for 10.8% of the total value of global goods imports, unchanged from the previous year, and imports accounted for the highest level in international market share.

In 2019, China's textile, clothing, footwear, luggage, toys and other 7 categories of labor-intensive products total exports of 3 trillion and 310 billion yuan, an increase of 6.1%. Notable achievements were made in the export brand construction, of which the export of independent brand goods was 2 trillion and 900 billion yuan, an increase of 12%, accounting for nearly 17% of the total export volume, 1.1 percentage points higher than the previous year. In addition, the new mode of production has become a new kinetic energy for foreign trade growth. Technological innovation, institutional innovation, mode and format innovation have been continuously strengthened, and the new advantages of foreign trade competition have been accelerated.

The report holds that with the acceleration of China's all round opening up, the western region has become an important force for stabilizing China's foreign trade development. In 2019, exports from the central and western regions accounted for 18.3% of the total export volume of the country. Trade in processing trade has achieved positive results. Processing trade exports in the central and western regions account for nearly 23% of the total export volume of processing trade. The import and export of private enterprises in the central and western regions increased by 28.3% and 22.4% respectively, higher than the 19.5 and 13.6 percentage points in the eastern region. In 2019, the top 4 regions of private enterprises' import and export growth were Tibet, Hunan, Guangxi and Anhui, all located in the central and western regions. With the help of the "belt and road initiative" and the comparative advantage of regional comprehensive cost, the import and export of private enterprises in the central and western regions will increase faster.

Since 2020, in the face of the sudden outbreak of new crown pneumonia, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have promulgated a series of measures to stabilize foreign trade. The Ministry of Commerce and the departments and localities have resolutely implemented the deployment of stable foreign trade work, and ordered foreign trade enterprises to resume work and production in an orderly way, and do everything possible to help enterprises tide over difficulties. In the context of the global spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the sharp decline in international market demand and the downward pressure on trade, the growth rate of China's foreign trade imports and exports has dropped somewhat in the first 5 months, but the development of foreign trade and high quality continues to advance. From the monthly point of view, with the accelerated progress of China's resumption of production and production, foreign trade enterprises accelerate the production of orders before the Spring Festival, rush for time to rush to perform their contracts, and the import and export decline has narrowed since March.

The report believes that the development of foreign trade in 2020 is facing increasing environmental uncertainties, challenges and pressures. The risk of world recession is rising, the supply chain of industry chain is blocked, and international trade and investment are shrinking. The difficulties faced by domestic enterprises, especially small and medium sized enterprises, are highlighted. Employment pressure is increasing. The risks and challenges faced by China's foreign trade development are extremely complex and severe. At the same time, we should also see that with the gradual easing of the domestic epidemic situation, the economic production activities are gradually restored to normal, stabilizing the basic foreign trade market for the whole year, and achieving stable and qualitative improvement in foreign trade, which still has a solid foundation and strong support.

The report points out that the Ministry of Commerce will co-ordinate efforts to promote epidemic prevention and control and foreign trade development, and make every effort to stabilize the basic foreign trade market, promote stability and quality improvement in foreign trade, promote the development of high quality trade, better serve the overall economic and social development, and make due contributions to building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.

?