There is a solid foundation for steady growth of foreign trade

Under the background of more complex and severe international environment and some unexpected factors exceeding expectations, stabilizing foreign trade has become an important support for China's steady growth. According to the data released by the General Administration of Customs recently, China's foreign trade import and export increased by 10.7% year-on-year in the first quarter, maintained positive year-on-year growth for seven consecutive quarters, achieved a hard won "stable start", and laid a good foundation for achieving the annual import and export target.
The stable start of foreign trade in the first quarter is inseparable from the solid support of China's macro-economy. In recent years, novel coronavirus pneumonia has been maintained in a leading position in the world as a whole, and the supply chain of the industrial chain has been running smoothly. In addition, China's industrial production system is complete and its supporting advantages are obvious, which has laid a solid foundation for the development of foreign trade.

The steady start of foreign trade in the first quarter was inseparable from the continuous efforts of a series of policies to help enterprises and rescue them. This year's "government work report" proposes to implement the new combined tax support policy, and it is expected that the annual tax rebate and reduction will be about 2.5 trillion yuan. Relevant departments have also strengthened cross cycle regulation and taken strong measures such as increasing financial support and dredging logistics bottlenecks to stabilize the growth of foreign trade.

After the recent executive meeting of the State Council made arrangements for stabilizing foreign trade twice in a row, on April 2, the State Council held a symposium on the foreign trade situation again, emphasizing the need to strengthen the analysis, study and judgment of the foreign trade situation, adhere to the principle of stability and seek progress while maintaining stability, and do everything possible to complete the objectives and tasks of stabilizing foreign trade determined by the central economic work conference.
The central authorities' attention to stabilizing foreign trade reflects, to a certain extent, the risks and challenges faced by China's foreign trade development. Especially since March, the epidemic has spread at many points in China and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has continued to ferment, which has brought great pressure on the production and operation and supply chain stability of some foreign trade enterprises. The blocking and blocking points in some foreign trade industrial chains have shifted from external circulation to internal circulation, and the negative impact has been directly reflected in the change of monthly data - in March, the overall growth rate of import and export fell.
However, China's foreign trade import and export have achieved positive year-on-year growth for seven consecutive quarters since the third quarter of 2020, indicating that the advantages of strong foreign trade toughness and great potential still exist, and there is still a solid foundation for the steady growth of foreign trade. Some market institutions predict that although the uncertainty and instability factors of the external environment increase and the growth rate of China's foreign trade may decrease, it is expected to continue to maintain a rapid growth momentum as a whole.
The more complex the situation is, the more we are required to plan ahead and respond actively. On the one hand, we should closely track the situation, accurately analyze, study and judge, strengthen the analysis and Research on major problems and risks in the field of foreign trade, and promote the implementation of various favorable policies and measures that have been issued; On the other hand, we should put the strengthening and improvement of services to foreign trade enterprises in a more important position, help the majority of market subjects actively respond to the new situations and problems encountered in production and operation, and constantly stimulate the market vitality of foreign trade enterprises. In this regard, we have tasted the sweetness. According to statistics, in the first quarter, the number of foreign trade enterprises with actual import and export performance reached 432000, with a year-on-year increase of 5.7%, and the import and export of private enterprises increased by 14.1%, 3.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of foreign trade.
While stabilizing the market players and the basic market of foreign trade, we need to pay more attention to the quality and efficiency of foreign trade growth and improve the ability of China's foreign trade to participate in the division of labor and competition in the international value chain. Objectively speaking, there are many favorable and unfavorable factors affecting the development of China's foreign trade, but the most fundamental one is that the fundamentals of China's strong economic toughness, great potential and long-term improvement have not changed. In this regard, we should not only face up to the current difficulties and challenges, but also strengthen our confidence in the steady growth of foreign trade in the future, implement policies such as tax reduction and fee reduction, make full use of measures to benefit enterprises such as finance and insurance, pay close attention to trade facilitation measures, put innovative development in a more prominent position, and promote the development of foreign trade to a higher level and higher quality.