In July, China's foreign trade import and export maintained a relatively fast growth, and the growth rate of import and export both rebounded year-on-year. Among them, the growth rate of imports increased significantly and the trade surplus narrowed sharply.

According to customs statistics, China’s total import and export value in July was 2.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%. Among them, exports were 1.39 trillion yuan, up 6%; imports were 1.21 trillion yuan, up 20.9%; trade surplus was 176.96 billion yuan, narrowing 42.6%.

In the first seven months, the total value of China's import and export of goods and trade was 16.72 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.6%. Among them, exports were 8.89 trillion yuan, up 5%; imports were 7.83 trillion yuan, up 12.9%; trade surplus was 1.06 trillion yuan, narrowing by 30.6%.

“The change in foreign trade data in July alone reflects a lot of long-term trends, especially the significant increase in import growth, indicating that China’s role in expanding import policies is emerging.” Yang, deputy director of the Institute of Foreign Economic Research, China Academy of Macroeconomic Research Chang Yong said in an interview with the Economic Daily reporter.

Huang Yuping, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs, said that overall, in the first seven months, the characteristics of China's foreign trade structure continued to be more optimized, the transformation of foreign trade power continued to accelerate, the quality and efficiency of foreign trade development improved, and imports and exports became more balanced.

From the perspective of trade structure, in the first seven months, China's general trade continued to grow rapidly, its proportion increased, and the growth rate of processing trade slowed down and the proportion declined. The data shows that in the first seven months, China's general trade import and export was 9.85 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.7%, accounting for 58.9% of China's total foreign trade, an increase of 2.1 percentage points over the same period last year. In the same period, the import and export of processing trade was 4.44 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.5%, accounting for 26.5%, down 1.9 percentage points.

From the perspective of trade markets, China's imports and exports to the EU, the United States, ASEAN and Japan have all increased, and the growth rate of imports and exports along the “Belt and Road” countries is higher than the overall. Among them, the total trade value of Central Europe, Central America and China-ASEAN was 2.46 trillion yuan, 2.29 trillion yuan and 2.11 trillion yuan respectively, up 5.9%, 5.2% and 11.6%; the total trade value between China and Japan was 1.2 trillion. Yuan, an increase of 4.3%. At the same time, China's trading partners have become more diversified. China's total import and export of countries along the “Belt and Road” has reached 4.57 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.3%, which is 2.7 percentage points higher than the national overall growth rate, accounting for 27.3% of China's total foreign trade. The proportion increased by 0.7 percentage points.

From the perspective of market players, private enterprises are still the largest main body of the foreign trade market, and the proportion of trade has further increased. In the first seven months, private enterprises imported and exported 6.55 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.4%, accounting for 39.2% of China's total foreign trade, an increase of 1 percentage point over the same period last year. In the same period, the import and export of foreign-invested enterprises was 7.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.9%, accounting for 42.4% of China's total foreign trade. The import and export of state-owned enterprises was 3.01 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.5%, accounting for 18% of China's total foreign trade.

In the first seven months, the characteristics of superior products in China were outstanding. On the export side, the export of some high value-added mechanical and electrical products and high-tech products maintained a good growth trend, and the new advantages of foreign trade competition gradually appeared, while the export of traditional labor-intensive products declined. According to statistics, in the first seven months, the export of mechanical and electrical products was 5.19 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.8%, accounting for 58.3% of total exports. Among them, high-tech products such as electrical and electronic products and machinery and equipment were active. The seven categories of labor-intensive products such as clothing, textiles and plastics exported a total of 1.69 trillion yuan, down 3.5%.

Affected by policies such as capacity and environmental protection, imports of crude oil, natural gas and other commodities increased, iron ore imports decreased, and the average price of bulk commodities rose and fell. In the first seven months, China imported 621 million tons of iron ore, a decrease of 0.7%; crude oil 261 million tons, an increase of 5.6%; coal 175 million tons, an increase of 15%; natural gas 49.43 million tons, an increase of 34.3%; steel 7.7 million tons, Reduced by 1.1%. "It is necessary to note that although there are still many growth in exports to the United States, with the escalation of Sino-US economic and trade frictions, the impact of trade protectionism on exports will further emerge in the fourth quarter of this year and next year, and external demand will face a tightening situation. Yang Changyong said that from the perspective of import and export, China's trade surplus will continue to narrow in the future, and there may be a deficit. It is necessary to prevent the capital account from also having a deficit and shocking the stability of foreign exchange reserves.

Experts said that it is necessary to properly cope with the uncertainties brought about by Sino-US trade frictions and accelerate the cultivation of new development advantages on the basis of stable foreign trade. In the next step, efforts should be made to open up markets in developed economies outside the United States and the “Belt and Road” market, accelerate the construction of high-standard free trade zone networks, use trade liberalization to hedge the impact of trade protectionism, and promote the long-term sustainable and healthy development of China's foreign trade.