Reprinted from: Economic Daily

The data released by the General Administration of Customs on April 14 showed that in the first quarter, my country's import and export of goods reached 10.3 trillion yuan, up 1.3% year-on-year, and the scale of import and export reached a record high for the same period in history, exceeding 10 trillion yuan for eight consecutive quarters. At a press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Wang Lingjun, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, said that since the beginning of this year, my country's economic operation has started steadily, the development trend has been new and positive, and foreign trade has achieved scale growth and quality improvement while moving forward under pressure.

Wang Lingjun said that in the face of increasing external difficulties and challenges, all regions, departments and the majority of foreign trade operators responded positively, promoting a smooth start to my country's foreign trade imports and exports in the first quarter, showing positive changes such as further enhanced activity of operators, further expansion of space for foreign cooperation, further optimization of regional opening-up layout, and further increase in the "innovation content" of foreign trade.

According to statistics, in the first quarter, the number of enterprises with import and export performance in my country reached 529,000, an increase of 33,000 over the same period last year. Among them, the number of private enterprises hit a record high in the same period in history, reaching 455,000, accounting for 86.1% of the total number of enterprises with import and export performance in the same period.

In terms of trade partners, in the first quarter, my country's trade with traditional markets remained relatively resilient, with rapid growth in imports and exports to Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative continued to go deeper and more practical, with imports and exports to the co-construction countries growing 0.9 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, including a 7.1% increase in trade with ASEAN and a 6.9% increase in trade with the five Central Asian countries.

From the perspective of regional layout, my country's central and western regions continue to play their own advantages, orderly undertake industrial transfer, and further release foreign trade potential. In the first quarter, the import and export of the central and western regions reached 1.84 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.7%, 7.4 percentage points higher than the national overall growth rate, and the proportion of imports and exports in the country also increased by 1.2 percentage points to 17.9% over the same period last year.

From the perspective of foreign trade structure, the import and export of equipment manufacturing products increased by 7.6% in the first quarter, accounting for half of foreign trade imports and exports. With the continuous launch of new national trend products, the export scale of independent brand products has increased year by year, and the proportion has continued to rise. In the first quarter, it continued to grow by 10.2%, and the proportion of total exports further increased to 22.8%. A number of upstream and downstream enterprises in the equipment industry chain with strong supporting capabilities and excellent product performance have accelerated their cultivation, helping China's foreign trade to move towards "new".

Foreign-invested enterprises are important participants in China's modernization, China's reform and opening up, innovation and creation, and China's connection with the world and integration into economic globalization. In the first quarter, there were more than 67,000 foreign-invested enterprises with import and export performance, a record high in the past three years; foreign-invested enterprises' import and export reached 2.99 trillion yuan, achieving growth for four consecutive quarters, among which the import and export of high-tech products such as electronic information products, biopharmaceuticals and medical instruments accounted for more than 40% of the country.

In the first quarter, my country's export volume exceeded 6 trillion yuan, achieving a rapid growth of 6.9%, showing strong resilience. Lu Daliang, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs and director of the Statistics and Analysis Department, analyzed that external demand, industrial innovation and market competitiveness jointly supported the rapid growth of my country's exports.

Data show that in the first quarter, the average global manufacturing PMI was 49.9%, higher than the fourth quarter of last year and the same period last year. Among them, the manufacturing industries in Asia and Africa were both expanding in March, and my country's exports to the above regions increased by 7.8% and 12.5% respectively. In the first quarter, my country's exports to more than 170 countries and regions increased.

At the same time, China's manufacturing transformation towards high-end, intelligent and green has strong momentum. Among them, the export of shipbuilding and marine engineering equipment has maintained a growth momentum for four consecutive years, and continued to grow by 10.8% in the first quarter; the export of special equipment has grown for nine consecutive years, and grew by 16.2% in the first quarter. New energy products play an important role in promoting global green transformation. In the first quarter, the export of wind turbines, lithium batteries, and electric vehicles increased by 43.2%, 18.8% and 8.2% respectively.

On April 9, the Chinese government released the white paper "China's Position on Certain Issues Concerning China-US Economic and Trade Relations", which demonstrated with a large amount of facts and data that the essence of China-US economic and trade relations is mutual benefit and win-win, is the result of the operation of economic laws, and has strong endogenous driving force.

"In the first quarter of this year, despite the interference and impact of the US government's abuse of tariffs, China-US bilateral trade continued to grow, with imports and exports reaching 1.11 trillion yuan, an increase of 4%." Wang Lingjun said that the actions of the US government have aroused widespread opposition from the world. China has resolutely taken countermeasures and will continue to work with all parties to jointly oppose the US tariff bullying and domineering behavior and jointly defend the multilateral trading system and economic globalization.

"At present, my country's exports are indeed facing a complex and severe external situation, but 'the sky will not fall'." Lv Daliang said that in recent years, my country has actively built a diversified market and deepened industrial chain and supply chain cooperation with all parties, which not only enabled the development of the other party, but also enhanced its own resilience. At the same time, China's domestic demand market is vast and is an important rear base. We will unswervingly do our own thing and deal with the uncertainty of the external environment with our own certainty.