Effective policies helping foreign trade to grow

Edited by Zhong Mengxia

Since the beginning of this year, all localities and departments have faced a more severe and complicated external environment, expanded high—level opening to the outside world, promoted the steady development of foreign trade and foreign investment, stabilized the scale, improved the quality, promoted innovation, continuously released policy dividends, and continuously expanded the space for foreign trade and economic cooperation. Market players in foreign trade maintain strong develop—ment resilience. With the continuous efforts of a series of policies and measures such as tax reduction and fee reduction, strengthening financial support, continuously optimizing the business environment, and increasing the supply and price stabilization of energy and raw materi—als, the development of various market players has been strongly supported. In particular, cross—cycle adjustment is well done to support small and medium—sized foreign trade enterprises to keep orders and stabilize expecta—tions, and the policy effect continues to appear, further stimulating the vitality of foreign trade market players.

According to the latest data released by China Cus—toms, from January to April this year, China's cumulative exports amounted to 6.97 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.3%; In the same period, China's imports amounted to 5.61 trillion yuan, an increase of 5 percent. In the first four months, China's foreign trade totaled 12.58 trillion yuan, up 7.9% year—on—year; The trade surplus was 1.36 trillion yuan, an increase of 39.2%.

Ability to resist external changes enhanced

Domestically, in the face of frequent outbreaks and changes in the international situation, enterprises are increasing their ability to adapt to changes in external demand, which is conducive to supporting export growth. In the first four months, the import and export of private enterprises was 6.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 11%, ac—counting for 48.5% of China's total foreign trade. Behind the "stability" of foreign trade is the resilience of enter—prises. The foreign trade enterprises in Zhejiang, a big private economy province, show the vitality and resilience of market players.

In the first quarter of this year, foreign trade en—terprises in Zhejiang were faced with problems such as transportation, production and raw materials distribu—tion. The government actively opened green channels for enterprises, solves problems such as poor logistics, and provided positive assistance for expanding the domestic market. Zhejiang Province has issued a series of policies to improve product quality, including new special funds for stabilizing foreign trade, which are used for export credit guarantee subsidies, overseas warehouse devel—opment, container logistics support, etc., giving full play to the role of government financing guarantee system, supporting small and micro enterprises in exchange rate hedging and credit enhancement services, and promot—ing the integration of domestic and foreign trade.

Since the beginning of this year, Jiangsu Province has made intensive policies, continuously optimized the business environment, made efforts to ease the bottle—neck of logistics and transportation, and ensured the stable and smooth supply chain of the foreign trade in—dustrial chain. Taking multiple measures simultaneously, the import and export of foreign trade in the first quarter was 1.29 trillion yuan, a year—on—year increase of 14%, of which the import and export of private enterprises was 471.01 billion yuan, an increase of 18%, 4 percent—age points higher than the overall growth rate of Jiangsu Province, accounting for 36.6% of the import and export value of Jiangsu Province.

Private enterprises keep a close eye on the changes in the global trade pattern, and constantly expand the in—ternational market with innovative and creative products. At the same time, policy dividends from government de—partments, such as reducing documents and increasing the underwriting of export credit insurance, continue to help the development of enterprises' foreign trade.

International import and export increased

Globally, although the world economy is affected by some unfavorable factors, such as the price increase of international commodities, and there are some un—certainties, the demand for Chinese products is still expanding because the recovery of the world economy has not changed. In the first four months of this year, China's import and export to major trading partners such as ASEAN, the European Union, the United States and South Korea increased.

ASEAN has become China's largest trading partner. In the first four months, the total value of foreign trade between China and ASEAN was 1.84 trillion yuan, up by 7.2%; Among them, the export to ASEAN was 1.03 tril—lion yuan, up 8.7% year—on—year; Imports from ASEAN amounted to 808.99 billion yuan, a year—on—year increase of 5.3%; The trade surplus with ASEAN was 223.42 billion yuan, an increase of 23.2%.

The EU has become China's second largest trading partner. In the first four months, the total foreign trade between China and the EU was 1.73 trillion yuan, up 6.8% year—on—year; Exports to the EU were 1.14 trillion yuan, up by 17%; Imports from the EU were 596.04 bil—lion yuan, down 8.3% year—on—year; The trade surplus with the EU reached 542.8 billion yuan, a year—on—year increase of 67.8 percent.

The United States has become China's third largest trading partner. In the first four months, the total foreign trade between China and the United States was 1.56 tril—lion yuan, up 8.7% year—on—year; Exports to the United States were 1.18 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.6%; Imports from the United States were 387.19 billion yuan, down 1.7% year—on—year; The trade surplus with the United States was 790.05 billion yuan, a year—on—year increase of 21.2%. China's imports and exports to coun—tries along the "the Belt and Road Initiative" totaled 3.97 trillion yuan, an increase of 15.4%. Among them, the ex—port was 2.2 trillion yuan, up by 12.9%; Imports reached 1.77 trillion yuan, up by 18.6%.

In the next stage, although the international environ—ment is complex and changeable, the characteristics of China's strong foreign trade resilience and great potential will not change, and the policy of stabilizing foreign trade will continue to be effective. China will unswervingly open wider to the outside world, strengthen mutually beneficial coop—eration with other countries in the world, actively promote the co—construction of "the Belt and Road Initiative", speed up the construction of free trade zones, improve the level of trade facilitation, actively develop new foreign trade formats such as cross—border e—commerce, and help the sustained growth of foreign trade.