In 2018, the total import and export value exceeded 30 trillion yuan, and China’s foreign trade once again led the world.

On January 14th, Li Kuiwen, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs, said at the press conference of the State Council Office that in 2018, China’s foreign trade was generally stable, with steady progress, and the import and export scale reached a record high, exceeding 30 trillion yuan, which is expected to continue to maintain its position as the largest country in the world trade in goods. In 2019, it is expected that China’s foreign trade development will be improved steadily, and the quality and efficiency will be further improved.

There are 470,000 enterprises with import and export achievements.

According to the data released by the General Administration of Customs on January 14th, in 2018, the total import and export value of China’s foreign trade was 30.51 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.7% over 2017. Among them, the export was 16.42 trillion yuan, up by 7.1%; Imports reached 14.09 trillion yuan, up by 12.9%; The trade surplus was 2.33 trillion yuan, narrowing by 18.3%.

"In 2018, China’s foreign trade achieved steady growth, which led to a new historical high in import and export scale and further improved quality and efficiency." Li Kuiwen introduced.

Specifically, China’s foreign trade development showed five highlights last year.

The business environment is "good" Last year, China successively introduced a series of policies and measures to reduce taxes and fees and optimize the business environment at ports, and the level of trade facilitation was significantly improved. According to the "Business Environment Report 2019" released by the World Bank, China’s state-owned business environment has improved by 32 places as a whole.

There are many foreign trade enterprises. In 2018, the number of enterprises with import and export performance increased from 436,000 in 2017 to 470,000, and the vitality of market players was further enhanced.

Trading partners are "wide". In 2018, the diversification of China’s foreign trade market made positive progress. The growth rate of China’s imports and exports with countries along the Belt and Road, Africa and Latin America was 3.6, 6.7 and 6 percentage points higher than the overall.

The growth momentum is "strong". According to the preliminary calculation of the customs, China’s import quantity index is 106.4, and the export quantity index is 103.6, and the contribution of quantity to imports and exports exceeds 50%, so the growth momentum of foreign trade import and export is more solid.

Quality and benefit are "excellent". Mainly reflected in the more balanced import and export, more coordinated regional development, and more optimized product structure. From the product point of view, the export of some high value-added mechanical and electrical products and equipment manufacturing products maintained a good growth trend, such as metal processing machine tools increased by 19.2%, mobile phones increased by 9.8% and automobiles increased by 8.3%; Imports of high-quality consumer goods of some important equipment and key components also maintained rapid growth, such as integrated circuits increased by 16.9% and consumer goods increased by 10.9%, among which aquatic products increased by 39.9%.

Private enterprises contribute more than 50% to foreign trade growth.

With the steady growth of foreign trade, the contribution of private enterprises can not be ignored. Li Kuiwen introduced that in 2018, there were 372,000 private enterprises with import and export performance in China, an increase of 10.7% over 2017, and more private enterprises participated in import and export activities. In terms of scale, the contribution of private enterprises to China’s foreign trade growth in that year exceeded 50%, and the pulling effect on foreign trade development was more prominent.

According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in 2018, the import and export of private enterprises in China was 12.1 trillion yuan, up 12.9%, accounting for 39.7% of China’s total import and export value, up 1.1 percentage points from 2017. Among them, exports amounted to 7.87 trillion yuan, up by 10.4%, accounting for 48% of the total export value, and the proportion increased by 1.4 percentage points, maintaining its position as the largest export subject; Imports reached 4.23 trillion yuan, up by 18.1%.

In terms of regional distribution, private enterprises have achieved echelon development. In 2018, the import and export growth rate of private enterprises in the central, western and northeastern regions reached 20.3%, 18.9% and 16.7%, respectively, which was higher than that in the eastern region (12.1%), showing a step-by-step development trend and achieving double-digit growth.

Li Kuiwen said that in supporting private enterprises, the customs has successively introduced a series of measures: First, it has launched a pilot program of tariff guarantee insurance. Encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to innovate, and exempt import tax on qualified public service demonstration platforms for small and medium-sized enterprises and related scientific research and technological development supplies. The second is to promote the reform of "multi-reporting in one". The third is to serve private enterprises to "go global". At present, China Customs has achieved mutual recognition of "AEO" with 36 countries and regions, and supported private enterprises to enjoy various convenient measures provided by local customs.

The development of foreign trade is expected to improve quality steadily this year.

What are the hidden worries in foreign trade in 2019? What is the trend of China’s import and export?

Li Kuiwen believes that the biggest worry of China’s foreign trade development in 2019 is that the external environment is complex and severe, and there are still many uncertain and unstable factors. Some countries are on the rise of protectionism and unilateralism, world economic growth may slow down, and cross-border trade and investment may be dragged down.

"Generally speaking, the long-term stable and positive development momentum of China’s domestic economy has not changed. The central government has also introduced a series of policies and measures to stabilize foreign investment and foreign trade, and its effects are gradually emerging, laying a solid policy foundation for the development of foreign trade this year. At the same time, the external environment is still complicated and severe, and there are still many uncertain and unstable factors. Coupled with objective factors such as the increase in the base, the growth rate of foreign trade may slow down. " Li Kuiwen said.

Zhong Shan, Minister of Commerce, pointed out a few days ago that this year, in the face of the complicated and ever-changing international environment, we should conscientiously implement the action plan of strengthening trade countries and promote the "stability and quality improvement" of foreign trade: First, we should further promote the "five optimizations". Optimize the international market layout, domestic regional layout, commodity structure, business entities and trade methods. The second is to do a good job in the "three constructions", build a foreign trade transformation and upgrading base, support the construction of international marketing service networks, and promote the construction of trade promotion platforms such as overseas brand exhibitions. The third is to develop service trade, popularize 29 experiences of pilot innovation and development of service trade, build export bases of special services such as digital services and traditional Chinese medicine, and improve the development level of service trade.

"We believe that with China’s further opening up and the deepening of supply-side structural reforms, it is expected that China’s foreign trade development will be steadily improved this year, and its quality and efficiency will be further improved." Li Kuiwen said. (Reporter Qiu Haifeng)