In the first half of the year, China's goods trade showed strong stability and growth potential
In the first half of the year, China's imports and exports of goods increased by 16.9% year-on-year, exports increased by 13.4%, and imports increased by 22.1%, showing a development trend of both quantity and quality, moving towards a new and green direction, optimizing imports and exports, and having more and more trading partners. "On July 22, at the" Starting Step of the 15th Five Year Plan "series of themed press conferences held by the State Council Information Office, Sun Meijun, Director General of the General Administration of Customs, stated that overall, China's foreign trade in the first half of the year had a strong momentum and growth, taking new steps towards stabilizing scale and optimizing structure, laying a good foundation and providing strong support for the start of the 15th Five Year Plan.
Outstanding features
In the complex and ever-changing international situation with significantly increasing trade barriers, China's foreign trade has demonstrated strong stability and growth potential. Sun Meijun believes that there are several prominent characteristics among them.
One is rapid growth. In 2025, China's foreign trade will experience moderate growth, and in the first half of this year, it will significantly accelerate, achieving double-digit rapid growth in imports and exports, imports, and exports. From the perspective of growth factors, there are both rapid quantitative growth and effective qualitative improvement. Imported goods meet the needs of China's new quality productivity development, industrial upgrading, and consumption upgrading. Exported goods are precisely adapted to international market demand, with high quality to price ratios and strong competitiveness, and are favored by overseas enterprises and consumers. Especially for products related to artificial intelligence, green low-carbon, and high-end equipment, the international market demand is strong and prices are good. It can be said that Made in China not only provides strong support for the security and stability of the global production and supply chain, but also injects valuable certainty into the uncertain world, "said Sun Meijun.
The second is excellent structure. From the perspective of import and export structure, expanding domestic demand drives faster growth in imports, with a growth rate 8.7 percentage points higher than exports. China is not only the 'world factory', but also the 'world market'. The "Export to China" series of activities launched by the Ministry of Commerce is another powerful measure for China to independently open up and expand imports. From the perspective of market structure, emerging markets such as ASEAN, Latin America, and Africa continue to consolidate and expand. The growth rate of imports and exports to the United States shifted from a decline in April to an increase, and the scale of imports and exports continued to expand in May and June. This indicates that the new positioning of China US relations has brought stable expectations for the development of China US and international economic and trade.
The third is high quality. The development momentum of China's foreign trade towards new, green and intelligent industries is particularly strong, with high-tech product exports increasing by 39%, electric vehicle exports increasing by 68.7%, and integrated circuit exports increasing by 88.7%. High end intelligent, green and low-carbon hard core technologies are becoming the new label and "golden business card" of "Made in China" exports.
The fourth is sufficient kinetic energy. Enterprises have taken the initiative to adapt to changes, with an increase of 115000 enterprises with import and export performance in the first half of the year. China has 140 million people shopping globally through cross-border e-commerce, and new formats and models are flourishing.
This is thanks to China's complete industrial system, huge market size, strong technological innovation capabilities, and the active progress of enterprise entities. Under the strategic guidance of the 15th Five Year Plan, the Chinese economy is fully entering a high-quality development track, providing strong endogenous driving force for the innovative development of foreign trade, "said Sun Meijun.
enhance quality and efficiency
The achievements are indeed commendable, but it should also be noted that the current international situation is intertwined and turbulent, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, tariff and non-tariff barriers are increasing, the global economic and trade order and supply chain are seriously impacted, and the uncertain and unstable factors facing foreign trade are significantly increasing.
Sun Meijun stated that during the "15th Five Year Plan" period, focusing on strategic planning tasks such as accelerating the construction of a strong trading nation and promoting the improvement of foreign trade quality and efficiency, the customs will prioritize promoting the growth of new foreign trade drivers, diversified market sharing, coordinated development of imports and exports, and promoting smoother dual circulation.
To promote the development of new momentum in foreign trade, customs will further optimize supervision and strengthen services, including optimizing the regulatory system for new formats such as cross-border e-commerce and market procurement; Innovative regulatory approaches for artificial intelligence products, green and low-carbon transformation products, etc; Promote the development of productive service industries such as bonded logistics, bonded research and development, bonded maintenance, and bonded testing.
In terms of promoting more diversified and shared markets, Sun Meijun stated that the customs will continuously strengthen the notification and evaluation of technical trade measures, help enterprises cope with trade barriers, and smoothly go global. They will also continue to carry out special actions for cross-border trade facilitation, implement free trade agreements such as RCEP, promote cooperation through opening up, facilitate breaking through barriers, and consolidate and expand diversified markets.
Currently, more "global goods" are being exported to China, sharing the opportunities of the Chinese market and providing diverse choices for Chinese consumers. Promoting coordinated development of imports and exports and facilitating trade cooperation are key. Customs will sign more trade cooperation documents, expand the import and source countries of advanced technology equipment, key components, energy resources, and high-quality agricultural products.
To promote a smoother dual circulation, the customs will continue to actively build a regulatory system that is compatible with high-level openness, create a transparent, stable, and predictable institutional environment, innovate customs clearance models, optimize regulatory methods, and enable efficient and convenient cross-border flow of various factors.