For the first time, private enterprises become the largest body of foreign trade

According to customs statistics, China's total import and export value of goods trade in 2019 is 31.54 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.4% over 2018. Among them, export reached 17.23 trillion yuan, an increase of 5%; import reached 14.31 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.6%; and trade surplus reached 2.92 trillion yuan, an increase of 25.4%. On January 14, Zou Zhiwu, deputy director general of the General Administration of customs, said at a press conference held by the new office of the State Administration that in the past year, with the significant increase of risks and challenges at home and abroad, China's foreign trade import and export has achieved steady growth in volume and steady improvement in quality, and is expected to continue to maintain its position as the world's largest country in goods trade. According to the data of WTO in the first 10 months last year, China's exports are the best among the top 10 trading countries in the world. In December, the scale of import and export, export and import all reached a monthly peak. According to customs statistics, the scale of China's foreign trade import and export rose quarter by quarter in 2019. In December, it reached 3.01 trillion yuan, a double-digit growth rate of 12.7% year on year. Among them, exports reached 1.67 trillion yuan, an increase of 9%; imports reached 1.34 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.7%.

In December, the scale of foreign trade import and export, export and import reached a monthly peak. In 2019, the proportion of China's general trade import and export increased, accounting for 59% of China's total foreign trade, 1.2 percentage points higher than that in 2018. Among the export commodities, the proportion of mechanical and electrical products is close to 60%. Imports of iron ore, crude oil, natural gas, soybeans and other bulk commodities increased. "Last year, China's foreign trade witnessed a trend of high-quality development and steady growth. The structure of trade mode has been continuously optimized, new momentum of trade has been significantly enhanced, and international competitive advantage has been significantly improved. " Zou Zhiwu said, "in 2019, China's export commodity price index rose by 2.8%, import commodity price index rose by 1.4%, and the terms of trade index was 101.4, indicating that we can exchange more commodities for the same amount of commodities we export. The export of some products with high added value keeps a good growth trend. " According to WTO data, from January to September 2019, China's share of electromechanical products and labor-intensive products in the global market increased by 0.2 and 0.9 percentage points respectively. According to Zou Zhiwu, there are three main reasons for the growth of China's foreign trade: first, the domestic economy is stable. The basic trend of China's economic stability towards good and long-term good has not changed.

From the data of the first 11 months of last year, the added value of industries above designated size has increased by 5.6% year on year, the total retail sales of consumer goods has increased by 8% year on year, and the investment in fixed assets has increased by 5.2% year on year. The annual GDP will still maintain a rapid growth, which is significantly ahead of other major economies in the world. Large scale market advantages and domestic demand potential have laid a solid foundation for the growth of foreign trade. Second, the overall resilience of China's economy is relatively strong. China is the largest manufacturing country in the world, with a complete industrial system. The output of more than 220 kinds of industrial products ranks first in the world, providing strong support for the development of foreign trade. The third is the sustained release of the policy effect of stabilizing foreign trade. The unprecedented tax reduction and fee reduction policy has effectively reduced the burden on enterprises. At the same time, China comprehensively deepened the reform of "deregulation services", effectively stimulated the vitality of market players, continued to optimize the port business environment, and improved the level of cross-border trade facilitation. The new business forms are developing vigorously, and the new momentum significantly enhances customs statistics. Last year, China's cross-border e-commerce and other new foreign trade business forms continued to maintain a vigorous development trend, among which the import and export through the customs cross-border e-commerce management platform reached 186.21 billion yuan, an increase of 38.3%.

The import and export of market procurement mode reached 562.95 billion yuan, an increase of 19.7%. In total, they contributed nearly 14% to the overall growth of foreign trade. The new momentum of trade has increased significantly. In 2019, for the first time, private enterprises surpassed foreign-funded enterprises and became the largest foreign trade subject in China. In the whole year, the import and export of private enterprises reached 13.48 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.4%, accounting for 42.7% of China's total foreign trade, 3.1 percentage points higher than that in 2018. Among them, exports reached 8.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 13%; imports reached 4.58 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.4%. Zou Zhiwu said that in 2019, the number of private enterprises with actual import and export performance reached 406000, an increase of 8.7% over the previous year. "The significant growth of the number of private enterprises reflects the continuous optimization of the domestic business environment, which is an important manifestation of the endogenous power and development vitality of China's foreign trade." In 2019, the import and export of private enterprises increased by 11.4%, driving the growth of foreign trade by 4.5%. From the customs data, with the help of the "belt and road initiative" and the comprehensive cost comparative advantage of the region, the growth of private enterprises' imports and exports in the central and western regions is faster. In 2019, the growth rate of import and export of private enterprises in the central and western regions reached 28.3% and 22.4% respectively, 19.5% and 13.6% higher than that in the eastern region.

"The customs conscientiously implements the decision-making and deployment of the central government and strives to create a better development environment for private enterprises." Zou said. For example, the customs introduced the reform of tariff guarantee insurance and introduced the commercial insurance mechanism into the payment of taxes. The private enterprises benefited the most and participated the most in this reform. The scale of trade with the countries along the belt continued to expand. Last year, while exporting enterprises continued to plough the traditional export market, they continued to explore new markets and achieved remarkable results. The position of major trading partners has changed, and ASEAN has become China's second largest trading partner. Specifically, in 2019, China's import and export to EU, the largest trading partner, reached 4.86 trillion yuan, an increase of 8%; to ASEAN, 4.43 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.1%; to the United States, 3.73 trillion yuan, a decrease of 10.7%. In addition, according to customs statistics, in 2019, China's imports and exports of the "one belt along the way" were 9 trillion and 270 billion yuan, an increase of 10.8%, higher than the overall growth rate of 7.4 percentage points, accounting for nearly 30% of the total value of imports and exports, an increase of 2 percentage points over 2018. Since the "one belt and one way" initiative was put forward, the scale of trade between China and the countries along the "belt and road" has continued to expand.

Zou Zhiwu introduced that from 2014 to 2019, China's trade value with the "one belt and one way" countries accumulated more than 44 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 6.1%, and China has become the largest trading partner of 25 countries along the line. Last year, the General Administration of Customs signed 198 customs inspection and quarantine cooperation documents, involving 89 countries along the "one belt" road. As of last year, China Customs has signed AEO mutual recognition arrangements with 42 countries (regions) of 15 economies. The number of mutual recognition of countries (regions) ranks first in the world, including 18 countries along the belt and road. At the same time, the customs continued to optimize the port business environment, further simplified the import and export supervision documents, and reduced the number of supervision documents verified at the port from 86 to 44. At the same time, the legal inspection catalogue was reduced, and the import bulk resource commodities were released first and inspected later, which greatly reduced the demurrage time of the enterprise's goods. Zou Zhiwu said that the national customs will continue to optimize the port business environment. On the one hand, we will refine the reform measures that have been issued and implement them. On the other hand, we will study and formulate more targeted reform plans to meet the actual needs of enterprises, so as to promote the optimization, coordination and efficiency of customs management.