On July 17, the person in charge of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce introduced my country's foreign trade operations in the first half of 2018.

Since the beginning of this year, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce, together with various regions and departments, has continued to implement a series of policies to promote the development of foreign trade issued by the State Council, actively responding to Sino-US trade frictions, and achieved rapid growth in foreign trade in the first half of the year. , The scale of import and export hit a record high, the structure continued to be optimized, the power conversion was accelerated, the quality and efficiency were further improved, and the momentum of stability and prosperity was further consolidated, laying a solid foundation for the high-quality development of foreign trade. According to customs statistics, my country’s total import and export volume in the first half of the year was 14.12 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.9% year-on-year (the same below); of which exports were 7.51 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.9%; imports were 6.61 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.5%; a surplus of 901.32 billion yuan , Narrowed by 26.7%. (In U.S. dollars, my country’s total import and export volume in the first half of the year was US$2.21 trillion, an increase of 16.0%, of which exports were US$1.17 trillion, an increase of 12.8%; imports were US$1.03 trillion, an increase of 19.9%; the surplus was US$139.65 billion, a decrease of 21.6%. .)

The person in charge of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce pointed out that in the first half of 2018, my country's foreign trade operations mainly showed the following characteristics:

From the perspective of commodity structure, the export of electromechanical products was 4.4 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.0%, accounting for 58.6%, of which automobiles, mobile phones, and computers increased by 14.9%, 10.7% and 6.0% respectively. The export value of seven categories of traditional labor-intensive industries such as textiles and garments was 1.41 trillion yuan, down 4.1%. The import of mechanical and electrical products was 2.92 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.4%; among them, the import of metal processing machine tools, integrated circuits, and computers increased by 28.0%, 22.7%, and 17.7% respectively.

From the perspective of operating entities, private enterprises exported 3.57 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.6%, accounting for 47.5%, an increase of 1.2 percentage points from the same period last year, and continuing to maintain their position as the largest operating entity in exports. The export of foreign-funded enterprises was 3.12 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.6%, accounting for 41.5%. State-owned enterprises exported 821.2 billion yuan, an increase of 7.1%, accounting for 10.9%.

From the perspective of trade methods, general trade imports and exports amounted to 8.33 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.2%, accounting for 59.0% of the country’s total foreign trade value, an increase of 2.3 percentage points over the same period last year. The import and export of processing trade was 3.73 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.5%, accounting for 26.4%. The border trade import and export of 124.69 billion yuan, an increase of 5.8%, accounted for 0.9%.

From the perspective of the international market, our exports to traditional markets such as the United States, the European Union, and Hong Kong increased by 5.7%, 4.0%, and 5.8% respectively; imports and exports to some emerging markets such as the “Belt and Road” countries and the BRICS countries maintained rapid growth. The import and export growth rates of Vietnam, Indonesia, Russia and Brazil reached 19.8%, 18.8%, 16.0% and 15.4% respectively.

From the perspective of regional distribution, imports and exports in the central and western regions increased by 15.3%, 7.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, and their proportion increased by 1 percentage point to 15.6%. Among them, the import and export of the central region was 1.11 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.0%; the import and export of the western region was 1.09 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.8%. The eastern region's imports and exports amounted to 11.92 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.6%, accounting for 84.4%.

In the next step, we will take Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, firmly establish and implement the new development concept, follow the tasks and requirements set out in the "Government Work Report", adhere to the overall work tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, and deepen foreign trade supply Intensify efforts to cultivate new trade formats, promote the gradient transfer and innovative development of processing trade to the central and western regions, actively expand imports, go all out to prepare for the first China International Import Expo, further enhance the level of trade facilitation, and promote high foreign trade Quality development, promote the building of a strong trade country, and make greater contributions to national economic and social development.