The growth rate has turned positive, further demonstrating the positive trend in China's foreign trade

"Beijing, November 7 (Xinhua) - China's foreign trade, moving forward under pressure, once again demonstrates its 'resilient strength.' Data released by the General Administration of Customs on the 7th showed that the cumulative growth rate of China's goods trade import and export for the first 10 months and the monthly growth rate for October both turned positive. The cumulative growth rate, which had slightly decreased by 0.1% and 0.2% year-on-year in the previous 8 months and the first three quarters, respectively, turned into a growth of 0.03%. In October, the year-on-year growth rate was 0.9%, reversing the previous 'four consecutive declines' in monthly growth rates, further consolidating the positive trend in monthly imports and exports.
Lü Daliang, director of the Statistics and Analysis Department of the General Administration of Customs, stated that in the current global economic recovery with uncertain momentum, China's foreign trade has remained stable with progress, and positive factors have continued to accumulate. According to the China Customs Trade Prosperity Index survey, the proportion of enterprises expressing optimism about future imports and exports has increased, further manifesting the positive development trend of China's foreign trade.

Looking at the latest data, three growth drivers have provided significant support for the recovery of foreign trade. Firstly, in terms of trade structure, China's economic performance has continuously improved this year, driving the expansion of import demand. In the first 10 months, foreign trade imports amounted to 14.77 trillion yuan, narrowing the decline to 0.5%. The noticeable increase in the import speed of some agricultural and consumer goods significantly boosted the import speed in October, turning it positive with a year-on-year growth of 6.4%, an increase of 7.3 percentage points compared to September.

Secondly, from a regional perspective, the Northeast region is quietly 'rising.' In the first 10 months, the total import and export volume of the three northeastern provinces exceeded 1 trillion yuan for the first time in the same period in history, with a growth rate higher than the national average. Among them, the proportion of private enterprises' import and export in the regional total increased by 1.4 percentage points, indicating further enhanced development vitality and new achievements in promoting the comprehensive revitalization of the Northeast.

Thirdly, in terms of market potential, China continues to expand its trade volume with emerging markets, and the international market layout with close regional cooperation and diversified trade continues to optimize. In the first 10 months, China's import and export to countries participating in the 'Belt and Road' initiative totaled 15.96 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%, accounting for 46.5% of China's foreign trade volume. Among them, imports and exports to ASEAN, Central and Eastern European countries, and the five Central Asian countries increased by 0.9%, 2.7%, and 34.8%, respectively, effectively compensating for the impact of insufficient demand in traditional markets.

Yang Guangpu, director of the Research Office of the Macro-Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, believes that these positive changes in the field of foreign trade are inseparable from the perseverance and innovation of a large number of foreign trade entities and the effective implementation of stable foreign trade policies, demonstrating the resilience and vitality of China's foreign trade.

As the Western Christmas season approaches and foreign trade enters the peak season at the end of the year, many companies are already prepared. For example, recently, the reporter visited the Kashgar Comprehensive Bonded Zone in Xinjiang. At China Shun E-commerce (Xinjiang) Co., Ltd., workers are loading boxes of holiday products onto trucks. These goods will be transported to the Irkeshtam port for customs clearance. If the ports along the way are not congested, they can appear on the shelves in Kyrgyzstan in three days.

"At present, there are about 450 registered enterprises in the bonded zone, which is much more than before." Guo Shusong, director of the management committee of the Kashgar Comprehensive Bonded Zone, said that as the only customs special supervision area in southern Xinjiang, the emerging formats in the Kashgar Comprehensive Bonded Zone are flourishing, showing a situation of rapid upgrading of bonded processing and bonded logistics, and diversified development of bonded services. It is believed that the continuous advancement of the construction of the Xinjiang Free Trade Pilot Zone will help cultivate new advantages in foreign trade competition.

Currently, global trade continues to be in a weak state. Based on concerns about growth challenges, the World Trade Organization recently lowered the forecast for the global commodity trade growth rate in 2023 from the previously predicted 1.7% to 0.8%. Against this background, looking at the trend of China's foreign trade, Lü Daliang said that with the continuous improvement of China's economic operation and the continuous enhancement of endogenous power, the pragmatic measures to stabilize foreign trade will continue to play an effective role, the operation trend of imports and exports will be more stable, and the quality and efficiency will be further improved. The goal of stabilizing and improving quality will definitely be achieved."