Review of China’s Foreign Trade in 2019 (2024)

( The Chinese version shall prevail. )

Review of China’s Foreign Trade in2019

General Administration of Customs ofthe People’s Republic of China

January 14, 2020

According to Customs statistics, China’s foreign trade volume in 2019stood at RMB31.54 trillion, up by 3.4% year-on-year (similarly hereinafter).Exports rose by 5% to RMB17.23 trillion and imports grew by 1.6% to RMB14.31trillion. The trade surplus increased by 25.4% to RMB 2.92 trillion.

In2019, China’s foreign trade registered a momentum of improving quality amidoverall stability. The details are asfollows.

First,trade volume witnessed quarterly expansion. The import and export values of the first through the fourth quarter of 2019stood at RMB7.03, 7.68, 8.26 and 8.59 trillion, respectively, with new recordsset in annual trade, exports and imports. In December, foreign trade witnesseda double-digit growth of 12.7%, totalling RMB3.01 trillion. Exports grew by 9%to RMB1.67 trillion; imports increased by 17.7% to RMB1.34 trillion. Monthlytrade, exports and imports all reached historical highs.

Second,the rankings of main trading partners shifted with ASEAN becoming China’ssecond largest trading partner. In 2019, China’s trade with the EU, our largest trading partner,grew by 8% to RMB 4.86 trillion; ASEAN became China’s No.2 trading partner,whose trade with China grew by 14.1% to RMB4.43 trillion, whereas Sino-US tradefell by 10.7% to RMB3.73 trillion; China’s trade with Japan, which ranked the 4^th,stood at RMB 2.17 trillion, up by 0.4%. In addition, China’s trade with Beltand Road countries totalled RMB9.27 trillion, up by 10.8% and 7.4 percentagepoints above the overall growth.

Third,in term of foreign trade volume, private enterprises exceeded foreign-investedenterprises for the first time and grew into the biggest contributor to ourcountry. In 2019, the privateenterprises’ foreign trade increased by 11.4% to RMB13.48 trillion. Accountingfor 42.7% of China’s total trade, which is 3.1 percentage points higher thanthat of 2018, the private enterprises had overtaken foreign-invested companiesin becoming China’s biggest foreign trade operator. In breakdown, its exportswere up by 13% to RMB8.9 trillion, accounting for 51.6% of total exports; itsimports grew by 8.4% to RMB4.58 trillion, making up 32% of total imports.Foreign-invested companies, whose foreign trade fell by 3.2% to RMB12.57trillion, took up 39.9% of China’s foreign trade. The imports and exports ofstate-owned enterprises rose 0.4% to RMB5.32 trillion, accounting for 16.9% ofthe total.

Fourth,the mode and structure of trade optimized as the percentage of general traderose. In 2019, the volume of China’sgeneral trade rose by 5.6% to RMB18.61 trillion, making up 59% of total trade,which is 1.2 percentage points above the 2018 level. In breakdown, exports wereup by 7.8%, totalling RMB9.95 trillion; imports reached RMB 8.66 trillion, upby 3.1%. Processing trade fell by 5.1% to RMB 7.95 trillion, accounting for25.2% of the total.

Fifth, electro-mechanic and labor-intensive productsdominated exports with the former accounting for nearly 60%. In 2019, China’s electro-mechanicexports grew by 4.4% to RMB10.06 trillion, making up 58.4% of total exports. Ofthese, the exports of electric appliances and electronics increased by 5.4% toRMB4.63 trillion; machinery and equipment exports were up by 1.4% to RMB2.87trillion. Over the same period, exports across seven categories oflabor-intensive products including textile and apparel grew by 6.1% to RMB3.31trillion, making up 19.2% of the total.

Sixth, the imports of iron ore,crude oil, natural gas and soybean, among other commodities all increased. In 2019, China imported 1.069 billion tons of iron ore,up by 0.5%; 506 million tons of crude oil, up by 9.5%; 96.56 million tons ofnatural gas, up by 6.9%; and 88.51 million tons of soybean, up by 0.5%.Besides, the imports of meat products grew relatively fast with 2.108 milliontons of pork imported, up by 75% and 1.659 million tons of beef imported, up by59.7%.

In recentyears, China Customs has implemented in earnest the decisions and plans of theCPC Central Committee and the State Council, continuously deepening her reformsto streamline admiministration, delegate powers and improve regulations andservices, keeping on improving doing business environment, significantlyreducing the overall clearance time and continuously optimizing the businessenvironment at ports. In 2019, the overall clearance time of import and exportwere cut by 42.3% and 42.4% year-on-year to 41.4 hours and 4 hours,respectively.

Overall,despite significantly rising domestic and international risks and challenges,China’s foreign trade scored both steady growth in quantity and continuousimprovement in quality throughout the year of 2019. Faced with continualslowdown in the world economy and rising uncertainties and instabilities, ChinaCustoms will follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism withChinese Characteristics for the New Era, implement the spirit of the 19^th CPC National Congress, the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th plenaries of the 19^th CPC Central Committee and the Central EconomicWork Conference, and observe the general guideline of seeking progress amidststability in pursuing supply-side structural reform, maintaining stability inforeign trade and foreign capital, among the six areas, and continuouslyoptimizing the business environment at ports to strive for opening-up of ahigher level, steady growth and quality development of foreign trade, better serviceof national socioeconomic development and greater contribution to thedevelopment of a moderately prosperous society in all aspects.