On Wednesday, April 13th, 2016, the State Council Information Office held a press conference in the press room of the State Council Information Office, and invited Huang Songping, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs, to introduce the import and export situation in the first quarter of 2016 and answer questions from reporters.
[Hu kaihong]Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to today’s press conference. Today, I am very glad to invite Mr. Huang Songping, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs, to introduce the import and export situation in the first quarter and answer your questions. Director Huang is everyone’s new friend. Let’s ask Director Huang to introduce the situation.
[Huang Songping]Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to today’s press conference. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Next, I will report on China’s foreign trade import and export in the first quarter of 2015, and then answer your concerns.
At present, the world economy is still in a period of deep adjustment after the international financial crisis, and the overall recovery is weak, and the situation is difficult to change significantly. The downward pressure on the domestic economy has increased, development has entered a new normal, and imports and exports have generally declined, but the quality and efficiency of foreign trade development have improved.
According to customs statistics, in the first quarter of 2015, China’s total import and export value was 5.54 trillion yuan, down 6% from the same period last year. The specific situation mainly includes the following aspects:
1. Exports grew steadily, while imports declined. In the first quarter of this year, China’s foreign trade exports reached 3.15 trillion yuan, up 4.9%, while imports reached 2.39 trillion yuan, down 17.3%. The trade surplus was 755.33 billion yuan, an increase of 6.1 times.
Second, market diversification has achieved positive results: exports to emerging markets have grown well and their proportion has increased. In the first quarter, the import and export value of China’s bilateral trade with the United States, ASEAN and India was 773.19 billion yuan, 671.39 billion yuan and 103.82 billion yuan respectively, up by 3.2%, 4.5% and 7% respectively. Among them, exports to emerging markets such as ASEAN and India increased by 20.9% and 23.3% respectively. In the same period, exports to Africa, Latin America and other regions also grew well, up by 22.2% and 9.6% respectively. The total export value to ASEAN, India, Africa and Latin America accounted for 26.8% of China’s total export value, up 3.1 percentage points over the same period last year.
Third, the regional layout of trade is more balanced: the import and export of foreign trade in the central and western regions maintained growth. In the first quarter, China’s import and export in the central and western regions was 802.98 billion yuan, up 4.2%, accounting for 14.5% of China’s total import and export value, up 1.4 percentage points over the same period last year. Among them, the export growth rate of the central and western regions was 16.5%, which was significantly higher than the overall export growth rate in the same period.
Fourth, the endogenous motivation of foreign trade has been further enhanced: the proportion of private enterprises has increased significantly. In the first quarter, China’s private enterprises imported and exported 1.93 trillion yuan, up 1.9%, accounting for 34.9% of China’s total import and export value, up 2.7 percentage points over the same period of last year, which also shows that China’s independent foreign trade development ability is gradually improving.
5. The structure of trade mode continued to be optimized: general trade exports grew rapidly. In the first quarter, China’s general trade import and export was 3.07 trillion yuan, down 5.7%, accounting for 55.3% of China’s total import and export value, up 0.2 percentage points over the same period last year. Among them, general trade exports increased by 12.2%, faster than the overall export growth rate of 7.3 percentage points.
6. The structure of export commodities has been continuously upgraded: the export of mechanical and electrical products and traditional labor-intensive products has increased, and the export situation of some high-end manufacturing products is better. In the first quarter, China exported 1.82 trillion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, up 6.4%, accounting for 57.7% of China’s total foreign trade export value. Seven categories of labor-intensive products, including textiles, clothing, luggage, footwear, toys, furniture and plastic products, totaled 629.16 billion yuan, up 6.1%, accounting for 20% of China’s total foreign trade export value. At the same time, the export growth rate of high-end manufacturing products such as transportation tools, mobile phones and metal processing machine tools is above 20%.
Seven, the terms of trade prices have improved significantly: the import price of major commodities has increased and decreased, and the benefits of foreign trade have increased. In the first quarter, China’s imports of major commodities maintained an increase. Among them, iron ore imports were 230 million tons, an increase of 2.4%; Crude oil was 80.341 million tons, an increase of 7.5%; 15.631 million tons of soybeans, up by 1.9%. In the same period, China’s import prices generally fell by 9.8%. Among them, the average import price of iron ore fell by 45%, crude oil by 46.8%, soybean by 18.6%, coal by 18.6%, refined oil by 38.7% and copper by 13.3%. In the first quarter, China’s export prices generally fell by 1%, which was less than the overall decline of import prices in the same period. From this calculation, China’s trade price terms index was 109.8 in the first quarter, which means that a certain number of goods exported by China can be exchanged for 9.8% of imported goods, which means that China’s trade price terms have improved significantly and foreign trade benefits have improved.
The above situation shows that China’s foreign trade has made some positive progress in improving quality, improving efficiency and optimizing structure this year. But at the same time, we must also see that China’s foreign trade development still faces some difficulties in the near future. For example, in the first quarter, the import and export value of China’s bilateral trade with the EU and Japan was 817.9 billion yuan and 405.6 billion yuan respectively, down by 2.1% and 11% respectively. The import and export values of foreign-invested enterprises and state-owned enterprises were 2.64 trillion yuan and 967.51 billion yuan respectively, down by 2.7% and 14.1% respectively. The import and export of processing trade was 1.74 trillion yuan, down 6.5%. In the same period, the import and export values of major foreign trade provinces and cities such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Beijing and Shandong also declined to varying degrees. In addition, in February, the leading index of China’s foreign trade exports rose by 1.0 month-on-month, but in March it fell by 1.4 to 38.2 compared with that in February, indicating that there is still uncertainty about the improvement of China’s exports in the second quarter of this year. These difficulties and problems are worthy of our high attention. At present, we should correctly treat the new normal of foreign trade development.
Faced with the severe and complicated foreign trade situation, the Customs, as an entry-exit supervision and management organ, will continue to implement a series of policies and measures such as the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to support the steady growth of foreign trade and strengthen imports this year, persist in striving for progress while maintaining stability, further deepen reform, strengthen services, optimize the environment, and constantly improve the level of trade facilitation, thus contributing to the realization of steady growth, transformation and upgrading of foreign trade.
Now I’d like to answer your questions.
[Hu kaihong]Thank you, Director Huang. Let’s start asking questions.
[Netizen:CCTV reporter]Hello, Director Huang, I just noticed from your introduction that the monthly export growth rate fluctuated greatly in the first quarter of this year, which is also a rare phenomenon from the long-term development data. Can you tell us what caused this? At present, China’s foreign trade is changing from "big import and export" to "excellent import and export". Is it reflected from the statistics held by the customs? Please make an interpretation and analysis for us. Thank you.
[Huang Songping]Thank you for your question. In the first quarter of this year, the growth rate of our foreign trade exports fluctuated greatly, and all parties were concerned. According to our analysis, the Spring Festival holiday is the main reason for the fluctuation of export growth rate in the first quarter of this year. Under normal circumstances, foreign trade enterprises in our country have the business habit of concentrating exports before the Spring Festival and starting work one after another after the fifteenth day of the first month, which leads to the phenomenon that the year-on-year growth rate of exports fluctuates greatly in each month at the beginning of the year.
We also selected three years’ data to introduce the law to you. For example, in the first three months of the first quarter of 2008, the increase or decrease rate was 19.3% in January, 0.4% in February and 20.9% in March. When we look at the first three months of 2012, it is the same: it decreased by 5.4% in January, increased by 12.7% in February and increased by 4% in March. It increased by 7.5% in January last year, decreased by 20.4% in February and decreased by 9.2% in March.
Let’s look back at the first quarter of this year. In the first quarter of this year, the Spring Festival holiday started on February 18, about 20 days later than last year. The dislocation of the Spring Festival holiday made the year-on-year base in January and March too large, and the year-on-year base in February was too small, which led to great fluctuations in the export growth rate in each month. The seasonal adjustment method is used to eliminate the holiday factor of the Spring Festival. In March, our country’s exports decreased by 4.4% year-on-year. On the whole, China’s foreign trade export increased by 4.9% in the first quarter, which should be said to be a relatively stable growth rate. This is the first question.
The second question, the situation in the first quarter, from the perspective of imports, except for some bulk commodities, we made progress. In the first quarter, the import performance of mechanical and electrical products was better than the overall import. At present, our country pays more attention to the import of advanced technology, key equipment and important parts. I have just introduced the import of mechanical and electrical products, but it has maintained a growth rate of 6.4%. At the same time, it is worth noting that the export of some high-end manufacturing products has grown rapidly. For example, the export growth rate of transportation tools, mobile phones and metal processing machine tools is above 20%, and traditional labor-intensive products have also increased. The rapid growth of export value of these products boosted the overall export growth rate by 2.6 percentage points in the first quarter. Thank you.
[Netizen:Reuters reporter]Do we have foreign trade figures denominated in dollars? Import and export in March, there is still a surplus.
[Huang Songping]We do have the statistics of dollar pricing, which have been mentioned in the printed press release. What I am talking about today is all denominated in RMB. We also keep the statistics denominated in US dollars. You can check them on the official website of the General Administration of Customs or on our printed materials. We all offer it to the public at the same time.
[Netizen:China news agency reporter]Hello, Director Huang, you just mentioned that since last year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have issued a series of measures to support the steady growth of foreign trade and imports. We have noticed that the Customs has actually issued a series of corresponding measures. What new measures will the Customs take to stabilize the growth of foreign trade this year? Thank you.
[Huang Songping]Thank you for your question. As you said, in 2014, the Customs issued corresponding policies and measures in a timely manner to promote the steady growth of foreign trade, including 20 supporting measures, canceling four administrative examination and approval items, comprehensively cleaning up and standardizing business service charges, supporting the construction of demonstration zones and pilot cities for the transformation and upgrading of processing trade, and supporting the development of new trade formats such as cross-border electronic commerce, etc., and actively implementing the State Council’s opinions on supporting the steady growth of foreign trade.
This year, in accordance with the decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the Customs will continue to implement various policies and measures to support the steady growth of foreign trade, persist in striving for progress while maintaining stability, and take corresponding measures in deepening reform, strengthening services and optimizing the environment, so as to further improve the level of trade facilitation and create a good business environment for the vast number of export enterprises. Specifically, we have several aspects:
First, in terms of deepening reform, this year we will push forward the reform of customs clearance integration nationwide, implement the "three mutualities" and promote the reform of large-scale customs clearance construction. "Three mutual" means information exchange, mutual recognition of supervision and mutual assistance in law enforcement. There are also "three ones" to promote the single window of international trade and deepen the cooperation between customs and entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureau, that is, one declaration, one inspection and one release. Innovate the customs supervision system in the pilot free trade zone, accelerate the integration and optimization of special customs supervision areas, promote the paperless reform of customs clearance, and comprehensively promote centralized summary taxation.
Second, in terms of strengthening services, we will establish a customs supervision mechanism compatible with the strategies of "One Belt and One Road", coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Economic Belt, support the construction of international logistics clearance, innovate international customs cooperation, and promote the development of new foreign trade formats such as cross-border electronic commerce. Support the development of producer services such as financial leasing and actively promote the free trade zone strategy.
Third, in terms of optimizing the environment, we will fully promote the construction of customs ruled by law, standardize discretion and strengthen the unity of law enforcement; Promote decentralization, comprehensively clean up the examination and approval of non-administrative licenses, and focus on streamlining and optimizing internal approval procedures; Accelerate the construction of enterprise credit management system and actively promote the integration with the construction of national credit system; Further standardize the operating and service charges of import and export links, and effectively reduce the burden on enterprises; Optimize the inspection mechanism, further improve the pertinence and effectiveness of customs inspection, and increase the proportion of container machine inspection; Maintain the high-pressure situation of cracking down on smuggling, strengthen the comprehensive management of anti-smuggling and maintain the order of import and export trade. Thank you.
[Netizen:China Radio International reporter.]I see that among the data provided by us, the whole import and export data in March, including both imports and exports, declined. What is the most direct reason? When you introduced the situation just now, you also mentioned that there is still uncertainty about the "good export". Can the goal of 6% annual foreign trade growth put forward in the government work report be achieved? How sure is it? Thank you.
[Huang Songping]Thank you for your question. To answer the first question, in March this year, the import and export of our country both dropped significantly year-on-year, especially the export showed a rare decline in recent years, which was mainly affected by the Spring Festival holiday. In addition, we believe that our foreign trade has indeed encountered some difficulties in the recent period, which have affected the steady growth of foreign trade import and export, mainly due to the following factors:
From the aspect of export, first of all, the demand in the international market is sluggish, and export orders have decreased. From the perspective of major markets, except for the relatively good economic performance of the United States, the economic recovery of other export markets is still slow, the growth momentum of global trade is still insufficient, the demand has not improved significantly, and orders have decreased or maintained weak growth. According to our survey of 3,000 export enterprises, since October last year, about 44% of enterprises have reported a year-on-year decrease in the amount of new export orders. In March, this proportion rose to 47.3%, which was significantly higher than the previous average; About 40% enterprises explicitly mentioned the difficulties such as bad external environment, weak market demand, no orders or reduced orders, fierce competition and so on. This is the main reason for the recent suppression of China’s exports.
Second, the comprehensive cost remains high and the traditional competitive advantage is weakened. Although the international commodity prices have continued to fall since the second half of last year, the raw material costs of foreign trade enterprises in China have declined, but at the same time, the costs of labor, financing, exchange rate and environmental protection are still high, and the traditional competitive advantage of foreign trade is being weakened. According to our survey, in March, 56.2% of enterprises reported that the comprehensive export cost increased year-on-year. Among them, 61.8% enterprises thought that the labor cost was rising year-on-year, 37.5% enterprises thought that the financing cost was rising, and 33.4% enterprises thought that the exchange rate cost was rising. At the same time, we also know that the structural employment difficulties after the Spring Festival also restrict the production and export of enterprises to a certain extent. In addition, the price of raw materials has fallen, and the price of export finished products has been depressed by overseas customers, which has also lowered export growth.
The above is about exports, and let’s look at imports. First, the import price of bulk commodities is still low, which has greatly slowed down the growth rate of import value. As we all know, since July last year, the international commodity prices represented by crude oil have fallen rapidly. Just now, I also introduced that the import prices of crude oil, iron ore and other commodities in China have all fallen by 45% year-on-year.
On the whole, China’s import price index fell by 9.8% in the first quarter of this year, and the decline in March reached 10.5%. The sharp drop in the prices of major imported commodities will naturally affect the growth rate of China’s imports, which is the main factor for the recent decline in China’s import value.
Second, the downward pressure on the domestic economy has increased, and the willingness of enterprises to import is weak. Since the beginning of this year, major macroeconomic indicators show that China’s economic growth rate continues to slow down, and the downward pressure on the domestic economy is greater. At present, China’s domestic economic development has entered a new normal, overcapacity in some industries has yet to be resolved, and potential risks in some areas still exist. Affected by this, China’s foreign trade enterprises tend to be cautious in judging the international and domestic economic situation, especially the slow pace of production expansion of manufacturing enterprises and weak import willingness, which has affected the import growth rate.
With regard to the trend of foreign trade and growth targets this year, we can see that despite the division of the world economy, all governments are striving to improve their own economic development environment, and our country is also deepening reforms in an all-round way to promote the stable growth, transformation and upgrading of foreign trade. Cross-border electronic commerce, market procurement trade, financial leasing and other new trade formats will continue to flourish this year. The free trade pilot zone and the "Belt and Road" strategy will also be accelerated, which are favorable factors for promoting China’s foreign trade development this year.
However, it is undeniable that fundamental factors such as sluggish external demand, economic downturn, weakened export competitive advantage and low commodity prices have formed obvious constraints on the development of foreign trade. In the coming period, the situation facing China’s foreign trade import and export is still severe and complicated on the whole. To achieve the expected growth target of foreign trade this year, we still need to make arduous efforts.
[Netizen:China Daily reporter]I would like to ask Secretary Huang, "One Belt, One Road" is a topic of great concern to everyone, and there have been many favorable policies recently. I would like to ask, in the first quarter, what was the bilateral trade situation of some countries along the route? What strategies will the Customs have to promote the Belt and Road Initiative? Thank you.
[Huang Songping]Thank you for your question. On March 28th this year, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the Vision and Action for Promoting the Joint Construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Silk Road. On the same day, at the opening ceremony of the 2015 Boao Forum for Asia, the Chairman of the Supreme Leader revealed that more than 60 countries and international organizations along the route have expressed positive attitudes towards participating in the Belt and Road construction. According to preliminary calculations, the import and export value of China and countries and regions along the Belt and Road in the first quarter of this year was about 1.45 trillion yuan, accounting for more than a quarter of China’s total foreign trade value in the same period, of which exports performed well, with a growth rate of over 10%, which was 5.5 percentage points higher than the overall export growth rate in the same period. This is a basic situation.
The Customs will also take more measures this year to support the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, which is a major strategic decision made by the CPC Central Committee to take the overall situation into consideration and conform to the general trend. The Chairman of the Supreme Leader proposed to strengthen policy communication, facilities connectivity, smooth trade, financial intermediation and people’s hearts. To serve the economic development, the customs will actively cooperate with the customs of countries along the route in the fields of interconnection and other fields, and act as a "first pass" to promote it.
In 2015, the customs will focus on the following tasks in the construction of "Belt and Road", including holding a series of activities of the "Belt and Road" high-level customs forum, establishing a customs clearance coordination mechanism for China-Europe passage ports, strengthening institutional arrangements such as signing cooperation agreements with the customs of countries along the route, promoting mutual recognition cooperation with certified operators, helping the open development of border ports, supporting the construction of the "Belt and Road" core area, and establishing "three exchanges" Thank you.
[Netizen:Xinhua news agency reporter]Hello, Director Huang, I see that the export growth rate of some high-end manufactured products is above 20%. What are the main areas for the growth of these high-end manufactured products? Thank you.
[Huang Songping]I don’t have the regional information at hand today. If you care, I can ask our assistant to provide it to you after the conference.
[Netizen:Great wisdom, reporter of ASDAK News Agency.]We have noticed that the General Administration of Customs issued a message saying that a foreign trade forum will be held in Guangdong. According to the data, the growth rate of foreign trade in the central and western regions is increasing, while that in the eastern region is declining. What measures will the Customs take to support the development of foreign trade in the eastern region? Thank you.
[Huang Songping]In terms of supporting regional development, the Customs will carry out the reform of regional customs clearance integration nationwide in May this year. In terms of regional customs clearance, we have linked all regions together, and now it is divided into about five regions for customs clearance integration supervision. We will provide a more convenient customs clearance environment for the development of various regions, reduce the customs clearance costs of enterprises and promote regional economic and trade development. Thank you.
[Hu kaihong]This concludes today’s press conference. Thank you, everyone.
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