The three highlights of China's foreign trade data release in the first five months are worth paying attention to! Single Month | Foreign Trade | China

The recent data released by the General Administration of Customs shows that in May, China's monthly total import and export volume reached 3.45 trillion yuan, with monthly imports and exports maintaining positive growth for four consecutive months. Based on the comprehensive foreign trade data from the first five months of this year, China's foreign trade resilience is continuously emerging.

01

Significant growth in emerging markets

40% increase in trade with the five Central Asian countries

In the first five months of this year, China's total foreign trade import and export value was 16.77 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. Among them, trade with emerging markets has become an important driving force for China's foreign trade growth.

In the first five months of this year, China's trade volume with ASEAN reached 2.59 trillion yuan, and ASEAN continued to be China's largest trading partner, with a year-on-year growth of 9.9%.

With the continuous interconnection of regional economic exchanges, China's imports and exports to other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement have steadily increased. In the first five months of this year, China's imports and exports to other RCEP member countries reached 5.11 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.5%, with RCEP accounting for over 30% of China's foreign trade.

Over the same period, China's imports and exports to countries along the "the Belt and Road" totaled 5.78 trillion yuan, up 13.2% year on year, including 44% to Kazakhstan and other five Central Asian countries.

At present, the international situation is still complex and severe, and the contraction of international demand is still ongoing. China's foreign trade is still facing pressure to promote stability and improve quality. The Ministry of Commerce stated that efforts will be made to stabilize the scale and optimize the structure of foreign trade, while stabilizing exports to developed economies, guiding enterprises to further expand into developing country markets and regional markets such as ASEAN.

Xu Yingming, Director of the International Market Research Institute of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that with the continued release of the positive effects of RCEP and the deepening and implementation of the "the Belt and Road" construction, RCEP member countries, countries along the "the Belt and Road" and ASEAN countries will become the growth points of China's foreign trade development. Green trade, digital trade and other areas will become emerging areas of China's foreign trade development, which is expected to continue to grow in the future.

02

New professions and new trends emerge

Injecting new momentum into the development of foreign trade

The role of new formats and models in promoting foreign trade is becoming increasingly evident. Nowadays, there are over 100000 cross-border e-commerce entities in China. With the continuous release of cross-border e-commerce vitality, a number of new professions have emerged in various regions, and at the same time, there have been explosive products such as household new energy products that have doubled overseas demand. The emergence of new professions and new trends is injecting new momentum into the development of foreign trade.

Under the new model, customer satisfaction has been improved and more and more additional orders have been added. For enterprises, the ability to deliver quickly and reduce inventory, as well as the "stacking effect" of multiple batches, can enable small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises to achieve profit scaling.

According to statistics from the cross-border e-commerce platform Alibaba International, since the beginning of this year, "expanding recruitment" has become a keyword for cross-border e-commerce enterprises, and "new professions" such as "customizer", "cross-border anchor", and "overseas analyst" have become popular positions. From March to May this year, the demand for air conditioning from overseas buyers increased by more than 50% year-on-year, with "self generating air conditioning" combining photovoltaic and energy storage systems being the most popular.

03

Adapting to the trend of green and low-carbon development

Enhancing international competitiveness

Focusing on the medium and long-term development of foreign trade, since the beginning of this year, China's market entities have actively followed the trend of green and low-carbon development, continuously enhancing the international competitiveness of foreign trade products by quantifying and reducing carbon costs.

In order to help enterprises actively respond, the Nanjing Pilot Free Trade Zone supports the development of a "carbon cost quantification analysis system based on export data". After obtaining authorization from enterprises, the platform system can accurately locate the carbon footprint and estimate carbon costs in the production process of enterprises based on export customs declaration data, including product weight, raw material types, etc., and generate a report with just one click. The entire process takes less than 5 minutes.

Through systematic quantitative analysis of carbon costs and precise positioning of carbon emission sources, the platform can guide enterprises in a series of transformation and development measures such as modifying supplier access conditions and optimizing material selection, enabling them to avoid paying carbon tariff fees and better export to international markets such as the European Union.

Gu Shiyu, the relevant person in charge of the Comprehensive Coordination Bureau of the Free Trade Zone of the Nanjing Jiangbei New Area Management Committee: In terms of open development and green development, we provide more efficient and convenient services for our enterprises, which can play a greater role in responding to international green economic and trade rules and reducing export costs for our export enterprises.

Cui Weijie, Vice President of the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce: The free trade pilot zone is benchmarking against the new rules of international trade and trade. While deepening exploration in traditional areas such as the "single window" of international trade, it is also leading the exploration and benchmarking in new forms and models of foreign trade, green trade, and other new fields. Through continuous breakthroughs in points, it paves the way for future accumulation. This is not only an important manifestation of leading high-level institutional openness, but also can reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enhance international competitiveness for foreign trade enterprises.