Since 2018, under the leadership of the CPC central committee and the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce worked with departments and local governments at all levels to genuinely implement the policies issued by the State Council in order to promote the development of foreign trade. Efforts have been made to promote the optimization of the international market layout, domestic layout, commodity structure, business operator and trade mode, accelerate the construction of foreign trade transformation and the upgrading of demonstration base, trade platform and international marketing network, fuel new business pilots and carry out positive imports policies to sustain the steady growth of foreign trade. According to the Customs statistics, in January, the value of China’s imports and exports amounted to 2.51 trillion yuan, up 16.2% year on year (the same as below). Among these, the exports registered 1.32 trillion yuan and the imports 1.19 trillion yuan, up 6.0% and 30.2% respectively year on year. The trade surplus was 135.8 billion yuan, going down 59.7%.

Regarding the commodity structure, the exports of mechanical and electrical products amounted to 769.56 billion yuan, up 9.4% year on year, taking up 58.1% of the total, 1.8 percentage points higher than that over the same period of last year. Among these, cell phones, integrated circuits, computers and parts grew up 30.1%, 28.9% and 10.8% respectively year on year. Exports in 7 labor intensive industry including textile and costume amounted to 267.89 billion yuan, down 5.7% year on year. In addition, the exports volume of steel reached 4.65 million tons, down 36.6%. Regarding the imports of bulk commodity, the imports quantity of crude oil, refined oil, coal, iron ore and soybean increased by 19.6%, 10.6%, 11.5%, 9.3% and 10.8% respectively year on year. The imports of mechanical and electrical products were 527.01 billion yuan, up 37.1% year on year, of which the automobiles reached 90,000, up 19.1% year on year.

In terms of the main business operators, exports by private enterprises reached 646.84 billion yuan, up 7.7%, taking up 48.8% of the total exports with 0.7 percentage point higher than that over the same period of last year and kept its position as the largest business operator. Exports by foreign-invested enterprises were 545.2 billion, up 7.1%, taking up 41.2% of China’s total exports, with 0.4 percentage point higher than that over the same period of last year.

In terms of trade mode, imports and exports of general trade amounted to 1.47 trillion yuan, up 18.5% year on year, taking up 58.6% of the total value of foreign trade, 1.1 percentage points higher than that over the same period of last year.

In terms of international market, China’s imports and exports with US, the EU and Japan grew up by 11.0%, 17.3% and 12.3% respectively year on year; those with BRICS countries like Brazil, Russia, South Africa, and Malaysia and countries along the Belt and Road route grew rapidly, going up 21.6%, 20.9%, 11.9% and 23.9% respectively.

Moving forward, we will follow Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, firmly establish the idea of new development, deepen the supply-side structural reform in foreign trade, strengthen the implementation of policies, make all efforts to prepare for the 1st China International Imports Expo 2018, promote to build a trade power and contribute more to the national economic and social development.