CCTV News: On the morning of July 14, the State Council Information Office held a press conference, and the relevant person in charge of the General Administration of Customs introduced the operation of China's foreign trade in the first half of this year. Data shows that China's import and export of goods in the first half of the year was 21.79 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.9% year-on-year. Faced with the complex domestic and international situation, China's foreign trade maintained strong resilience, achieving total growth, quality improvement, and controllable variables.

China's foreign trade has achieved total growth, quality improvement, variables are controllable

Since this year, in the face of the complex and severe international situation, China's foreign trade has maintained strong resilience, achieving total growth, quality improvement, and variables are controllable. Local and departments have implemented a "combination punch" to stabilize foreign trade, and China's foreign trade has shown positive signals in many aspects.

Foreign trade "Friends" are more diverse, and emerging markets become new growth points

First, foreign trade "Friends" are more diverse, and emerging markets contribute more incremental. From the perspective of trading partners, in the first half of the year, China's foreign trade with the "Belt and Road" jointly established countries reached 11.29 trillion yuan, accounting for 51.8% of the overall foreign trade. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the EU. In the first half of the year, China's imports and exports to the EU were 2.82 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.5% year-on-year, with an average daily import and export of more than 15 billion yuan, equivalent to the trade value of the year when the diplomatic relations was established.

"New content and gold content" increase rapidly, export momentum is towards better and new

Secondly, foreign trade "new content" and "gold content" continue to improve, high-tech and high-value-added products have enhanced competitiveness, and export momentum is towards better and new. In the first half of the year, China's mechanical and electrical products exported 7.8 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.5%, accounting for 60% of the total export value. Among them, high-end equipment closely related to new quality productivity increased by more than 20%, and the "new three" products representing green and low-carbon growth increased by 12.7%.

Private enterprises contribute half of foreign trade, and foreign investment has grown for five consecutive quarters

Trading entities are full of vitality. In the first half of the year, the import and export of private enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises maintained growth, of which private enterprises accounted for 57.3% of foreign trade. Foreign-invested enterprises have performed well in imports and exports, and have maintained growth for five consecutive quarters. China has achieved 75,000 foreign-invested enterprises with import and export performance, setting a new high since 2021. Data proves that China is an ideal safe and promising investment destination for multinational corporations.

Wang Lingjun, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Customs: my country's foreign trade was pressing forward in the first half of this year, with steady growth in scale and improved in quality. The results are not easy. The fundamental reason for such achievements is that the Party Central Committee is centralized and unified leadership, and it is also inseparable from the efforts of all localities and departments to overcome difficulties, and the response and innovation of the vast number of foreign trade enterprises and foreign trade practitioners. But we must also see that global unilateralism and protectionism are rising, and the complexity, severity and uncertainty of the external environment have increased. It still requires hard work to stabilize the growth of my country's foreign trade in the second half of the year.