Zou Zhiwu, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, introduced import and export situation of 2019 at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on January 14, 2019.

2019 trade data have six main features.

The General Administration of Customs said that China's foreign trade development in 2019 showed overall stability and quality improvement, with exports and imports all hitting record high.

The total value of China's imports and exports of goods in 2019 was 31.54 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.4% over 2018. Exports totaled 17.23 trillion yuan, up 5%; Imports were 14.31 trillion yuan, up 1.6%; The trade surplus was 2.92 trillion yuan, an increase of 25.4%. Zou zhiwu, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, said that China's foreign trade development in the past year has been stable and improved. Specifically, it has the following six characteristics:

Firstly, the scale of import and export increased quarter by quarter, reaching a record high.

Imports and exports in four quarters of 2019 were 7.03 trillion yuan, 7.68 trillion yuan, 8.26 trillion yuan and 8.59 trillion yuan, respectively.

Imports and exports totaled 3.01 trillion yuan in December, with a double-digit year-on-year growth rate of 12.7%. Exports totaled 1.67 trillion yuan, up 9%; Imports were 1.34 trillion yuan, up 17.7%. Foreign trade imports and exports, exports, imports have reached the monthly peak.

Secondly, the status of major trading partners has changed. ASEAN has surpassed the United States to become China's second largest trading partner.

In 2019, China's imports and exports to the European Union (our largest trading partner) totaled 4.86 trillion yuan, up 8%. ASEAN has become China's second largest trading partner, with imports and exports to ASEAN reaching 4.43 trillion yuan, up 14.1%. Imports and exports to the US totaled 3.73 trillion yuan, down 10.7%; Imports and exports to Japan, the fourth largest trading partner, totaled 2.17 trillion yuan, up 0.49%.

In addition, China's imports and exports to "One Belt and One Road" countries reached 9.27 trillion yuan, up 10.8%, 7.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate.

Thirdly, the main body of foreign trade has also changed, private enterprises have become China's largest foreign trade main body.

In 2019, imports and exports of private enterprises totalled 13.48 trillion yuan, up 11.4%, accounting for 42.7% of China's total foreign trade, an increase of 3.1 percentage points over 2018, surpassing foreign-invested enterprises as China's largest foreign trade operators for the first time.

Zou Zhiwu said that the current significant growth in the number of private enterprises reflected the continuous optimization of the domestic business environment, which is an important expression of the internal driving force and development vitality of China's foreign trade. In 2019, imports and exports of private enterprises increased by 11.4%, contributing 4.5 percentage points to the growth of foreign trade.

Fourthly, the structure of trade pattern was optimized, and the proportion of general trade imports and exports was increased.

In 2019, China's general trade imports and exports totaled 18.61 trillion yuan, up 5.6%, accounting for 59% of China's total foreign trade, an increase of 1.2 percentage points over 2018. Exports totaled 9.95 trillion yuan, up 7.8%; Imports totaled 8.66 trillion yuan, up 3.1%. Imports and exports of processing trade were 7.95 trillion yuan, down 5.1%, accounting for 25.2%.

Fifthly, export commodities are mainly mechanical and electrical products and labor-intensive products.

In 2019, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 10.06 trillion yuan, up 4.4%, accounting for 58.4% of the total value of exports. Of this figure, exports of electrical and electronic products totaled 4.63 trillion yuan, up 5.4%; Machinery and equipment totaled 2.87 trillion yuan, up 1.4%. Over the same period, exports of seven categories of labor-intensive products, including textiles and clothing, reached 3.31 trillion yuan, up 6.1%.

Sixthly, imports of iron ore, crude oil, natural gas, soybeans and other commodities increased.

In 2019, China imported 1.069 billion tons of iron ore, an increase of 0.5%. Crude oil was imported 506 million tons, up 9.5%; natural gas was imported 96.56 million tons, up 6.9%; Imports of soybeans totaled 88.51 million tons, up 0.5%. In addition, the import of meat products increased rapidly, with 2.108 million tons of pork imported last year, an increase of 75%. Imports of beef totaled 1.659 million tons, up 59.7%.