Since the beginning of this year, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, China's foreign trade has withstood the pressure from the complicated economic circumstances both at home and abroad. In the first quarter, China’s imports and exports increased by 10.7% year-on-year to RMB9.42 trillion, off to a good start and laying a sound foundation for achieving the targets for the year.

However, we are also soberly aware that the environment for foreign trade development is becoming more challenging and complicated and risks and challenges abound. Internationally, bottlenecks in global supply chains are yet to be alleviated. Inflationary pressures are rising, major economies are tightening their monetary policies, and global economic and trade growth have slowed down. On April 12, the WTO lowered its forecasts for global economic and trade growth in 2022 by 1.3 and 1.7 percentage points, respectively. At home, recently, frequent local COVID-19 outbreaks in many places have undermined the production and operation of some foreign trade enterprises and hindered logistics and transport, resulting in impediments in supply chains in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and other regions, as well as high overall costs for enterprises.

That said, China’s foreign trade has a strong industrial foundation. The fundamentals underpinning long-term growth remain unchanged. There are still many favorable conditions for achieving the goal of maintaining stability in and improving the quality of import and export. MOFCOM will continue to pay close attention to related developments, ensure effective implementation of the policies introduced to stabilize foreign trade, research effective new policies, and work with relevant departments to fulfill all the requirements in the State Council inter-agency task force’s circular on ensuring smooth freight transport and logistics. We will eliminate bottlenecks, tackle pains and difficulties, and make every effort to keep foreign trade industrial and supply chains stable and smooth to tide foreign trade enterprises over and keep this year’s major trade indicators within an appropriate range. Thanks.