The General Administration of Customs released data on the 9th, stating that in the first five months of this year, China's total import and export value of goods trade was 1.794 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.5%. Among them, exports increased by 7.2%, while the decline in imports narrowed to 3.8%.

       The external environment has undergone rapid changes, and foreign trade has been under pressure in May. According to statistics, in that month, China's overall imports and exports increased by 2.7% and 6.3% year-on-year, respectively, while imports decreased by 2.1%. In absolute terms, the total import and export value, export value, and import value in May all ranked second this month.

       From a year-on-year decrease of 2.2% in imports and exports in January and a decrease of 1.2% in the first two months, to a growth of 1.3% in imports and exports in the first quarter and an increase of 2.4% in the first four months, and then a further acceleration of 0.1 percentage points in the first five months, Lv Daliang, Director of the Statistical Analysis Department of the General Administration of Customs, said that since the beginning of this year, the Chinese economy has continued to rise and improve, and goods trade has maintained strong resilience under external pressure. In May, China's imports and exports continued to grow, especially after the high-level talks on economic and trade between China and the United States. The growth rate significantly accelerated, and the month achieved steady growth with two less working days compared to the same period last year.

       Bai Ming, a researcher at the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that China's foreign trade can remain active and generally stable in the face of severe challenges due to various reasons. Among them, there are substantial progress made in the high-level talks between China and the United States on economic and trade, which effectively offset the changes brought about by the tariff policies in the first half of the month, and a series of policy measures gradually released their effectiveness, effectively boosting the confidence of foreign trade enterprises.

       Coping with difficulties and challenges and promoting the upgrading of foreign trade quality is a necessary question for China's foreign trade to achieve high-quality development.

       It is not difficult to find through the latest data that the supporting role of the equipment manufacturing industry is becoming increasingly evident. In the first five months, the export of equipment manufacturing products, which reflect the supporting and integrated capabilities of the industry, increased by 9.2% year-on-year, accounting for nearly 60% of China's total export value and contributing 73% to the overall export growth. Among them, the export of industrial robots, electric vehicles, ships, and construction machinery increased by 55.4%, 19%, 18.9%, and 10.7% respectively.

       A welcome signal is that various business entities are advancing together. In the first five months, the import and export of private enterprises in China increased by 7% year-on-year, accounting for 57.1% of China's total foreign trade value, an increase of 2.4 percentage points compared to the same period last year. During the same period, the number of foreign-funded enterprises with import and export performance in China exceeded 73000, the highest in the same period in five years, with a total import and export of 5.21 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.3%, driving the overall import and export growth of China by 0.7 percentage points during the same period. Among them, the import and export of foreign-funded enterprises increased by 4% in May, and the monthly import and export value maintained growth for four consecutive months.

       The "circle of friends" for win-win cooperation is getting bigger and bigger. In the first five months, China's import and export volume to African countries reached a historic high for the same period; The total trade value with ASEAN and EU increased by 9.1% and 2.9% respectively, accounting for nearly 30% of China's total foreign trade value; Total imports and exports to countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" increased by 4.2%. Among them, in May, China's exports to ASEAN, EU, Africa, and Central Asia increased by 16.9%, 13.7%, 35.3%, and 8.8% respectively.

       Looking ahead to the next stage of foreign trade situation, Professor Zhuang Rui from the University of International Business and Economics believes that the international environment remains complex and severe, with many unstable, uncertain, and unpredictable factors. However, the fundamentals of China's foreign trade development remain stable and positive.

       Recently, the China ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 negotiations have been fully completed, and multiple policies and measures to stabilize foreign trade have been introduced intensively. Innovation momentum continues to grow... "Facing difficulties, with the coordination of all parties, we will make every effort to cope with economic and trade frictions, which will help drive foreign trade to continue to play a stabilizing role in China's economic growth," said Zhuang Rui.

Information source: Xinhua News Agency