Solid foundation for development of foreign trade

Aerial photo taken on May 26, 2021 shows the Yangpu international container port at Yangpu economic development zone in South China's Hainan province. [Photo/Xinhua]

The value of China's foreign trade in the first four months of this year was 12.58 trillion yuan ($1.88 trillion), up 7.9 percent year-on-year, the General Administration of Customs announced on Monday, among which exports totaled 6.97 trillion yuan, up 10.3 percent and imports reached 5.61 trillion yuan, up 5 percent.

In the face of a more complex and severe external environment, that China's imports and exports have still maintained growth fully demonstrates the Chinese economy's strong resilience, ample potential, wide room for maneuver and sound fundamentals.

The stable growth in foreign trade is attributable to several factors. China has a complete industrial production system that lays the foundation for the growth of foreign trade, and it has done a good job balancing economic and social development with COVID-19 prevention and control, which has enabled its industrial and supply chains to operate relatively smoothly.

The central authorities have also rolled out a series of policies to stabilize the country's foreign trade, increasing financial support and resolving logistics bottlenecks.

But policymakers must be soberly aware that foreign trade and foreign investment still face many risks and challenges due to internal and external uncertainties.

The global economic recovery is uneven, monetary policy changes in major developed economies are having negative spillover effects on the world, and the bottlenecks of the global supply chain are still difficult to address. As a result, the growth rate of foreign trade in the first four months was 2.8 percentage points lower than that of the first quarter.

Foreign trade still gives good support for achieving the goal of ensuring stability and improving the quality of China's foreign trade this year. But the complexity of the situation means that China needs to act more proactively.

On the one hand, the country must ensure the effectiveness of the policies introduced to stabilize foreign trade, and adapt the policies to the changing environment to ensure the stability and smooth operation of the industrial chains and supply chains.

Governments at all levels should help enterprises to obtain more orders through various online and offline channels. The financial agencies should further increase credit support for foreign trade enterprises, especially the small, medium and micro-sized enterprises.

On the other hand, the country must continue to open up to the outside world at a higher level so that companies of all countries can enjoy better development opportunities and greater space for growth in an open Chinese market. As such, the government should give higher priority to strengthening and improving services to help foreign-funded enterprises address their practical concerns in China.