According to data released by the General Administration of Customs recently, in May, China's total monthly imports and exports totaled 3.45 trillion yuan, and monthly imports and exports maintained positive growth for four consecutive months. Based on the foreign trade data for the first five months of this year, China's foreign trade resilience continues to emerge.

In the first five months of this year, China's total foreign trade imports and exports totaled 16.77 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. Among them, trade with emerging markets has become an important driving force for China's foreign trade growth.

In the first five months of this year, China's trade with ASEAN reached 2.59 trillion yuan, and ASEAN continued to be China's largest trading partner, an increase of 9.9% year-on-year.

With the continuous interconnection of regional economic exchanges, China's imports and exports to other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) have grown steadily. In the first five months of this year, China's imports and exports to other RCEP member countries totaled 5.11 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.5%, and RCEP accounted for more than 30% of China's foreign trade.

During the same period, China's total imports and exports to countries along the Belt and Road reached 5.78 trillion yuan, up 13.2% year-on-year, of which imports and exports to five Central Asian countries including Kazakhstan increased by 44%.

At present, the international situation remains complex and severe, and the contraction of international demand continues. China's foreign trade is still under pressure to "promote stability and improve quality". The Ministry of Commerce said that it will increase efforts to promote the stabilization of foreign trade and optimize its structure. While stabilizing exports to developed economies, it will guide enterprises to further expand into developing countries and regional markets such as ASEAN.

Xu Yingming, Director of the International Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute:With the continued release of RCEP benefits and the deepening and implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, RCEP member countries, countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, and ASEAN countries will become growth points for China's foreign trade development. Green trade, digital trade, etc. will become emerging areas for China's foreign trade development, and are expected to continue to grow in the future.

The emergence of new professions and new outlets has injected new impetus into the development of foreign trade

The role of new formats and new models in promoting foreign trade has also become increasingly obvious. Today, there are more than 100,000 cross-border e-commerce entities in China. As the vitality of cross-border e-commerce continues to be released, a number of new professions have emerged in various places, and hot-selling products such as household new energy products have also emerged, and overseas demand has doubled. The emergence of new professions and new outlets is injecting new momentum into the development of foreign trade.

The reporter came to this foreign trade company in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and saw that the factory was producing 1,600 flexible customized cycling suits. Since the beginning of this year, the company's order volume has increased by 30% compared with the same period last year, among which the number of personalized customized small orders of more than a dozen or more than 100 pieces has doubled year-on-year.

The "flexibility" of "flexible customization" is reflected in the variety, small batch and fast production. Workers are no longer standing on a fixed assembly line, but can complete orders in modules or even by one person. To this end, the company has added a new "flexible customizer" position, recruiting new people while encouraging old employees to actively transform.

Under the new model, customer satisfaction has been improved, and more and more additional orders have been added. For enterprises, they can deliver goods quickly and reduce inventory. The "superposition effect" of multiple batches can enable small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises to achieve profit scale.

Jin Feiyan, CEO of Hangzhou Lampada Sporting Goods Co., Ltd.:The profit of traditional foreign trade orders is about 20%. Through flexible customization, our profit has increased by 20 points to about 40%.

In addition to flexible customizers, "cross-border anchors" have also become a popular new profession in foreign trade. With an ordinary booth and a live broadcast machine, "cross-border anchors" broadcast live videos to global customers in fluent English.

Cross-border anchor Zhang Yan introduced that unlike ordinary live broadcasters, they are facing overseas corporate customers. Compared with the number of fans, they care more about the quality of fans. Through the precise screening of cross-border e-commerce platforms, they can efficiently find overseas potential customers, and the two parties can reach a deal without meeting.

According to statistics from the cross-border e-commerce platform Alibaba International Station, since this year, "expansion" has become a keyword for cross-border e-commerce companies, and new professions such as "customizers", "cross-border anchors" and "overseas analysts" have become popular positions. From March to May this year, the demand for air conditioners from overseas buyers increased by more than 50% year-on-year. Among them, the "air conditioners that can generate their own electricity" combined with photovoltaic and energy storage systems are the most popular.

Adapt to the trend of green and low-carbon development to enhance international competitiveness

Focusing on the medium- and long-term development of foreign trade, since the beginning of this year, Chinese market players have actively adapted to the trend of green and low-carbon development, and have continuously enhanced the international competitiveness of foreign trade products by quantifying and reducing carbon costs.

This new material export company exports nearly 20,000 tons of outdoor building materials products each year, which are sold to the Americas, Europe, Southeast Asia and other regions. In the era of low-carbon economy, especially in the context of global cooperation to address climate change, companies are increasingly feeling the urgency of green development.

Wu Jinsong, head of a new material export company in Nanjing:It is very urgent. On the one hand, from the communication with foreign customers and associations, we have fully felt the urgency, including carbon reduction, carbon emissions and carbon emissions in the production process, including the urgency of green production, and the carbon tariffs that may be directly adopted after 2026. We have fully recognized and felt the urgency.

This company relies on imported plastic wood production lines to synthesize waste plastics and waste biomass fibers into outdoor building materials. This kind of production process is relatively long. How to use scientific and technological means to accurately locate the carbon emissions of the product throughout its life cycle and quantify the carbon cost is not only a precautionary measure, but also a necessary path for enterprises to upgrade their industries and enhance their international competitiveness.

Wu Jinsong, head of a new material export company in Nanjing:If there is such a product that can clearly tell me how much carbon emissions there are in each process, we think this thing is still very necessary and necessary, so that we have a direction to work hard in each process.

In order to help enterprises respond proactively, Nanjing Pilot Free Trade Zone supports the creation of a "Carbon Cost Quantification Analysis System Based on Export Data". After obtaining authorization from the enterprise, the platform system can accurately locate the carbon footprint of the enterprise's production process, estimate the carbon cost, and generate a report with one click based on the enterprise's export declaration data, including product weight, raw material type, etc. The whole process takes less than 5 minutes.

After a systematic carbon cost quantification analysis, the source of carbon emissions is accurately located. The platform can guide enterprises to avoid paying carbon tariffs through a series of transformation and development measures such as modifying supplier access conditions and optimizing material selection, so that enterprises can better export to international markets such as the European Union.

Gu Shiyu, relevant person in charge of the Free Trade Zone Comprehensive Coordination Bureau of the Nanjing Jiangbei New District Management Committee: In terms of open development and green development, providing our enterprises with more efficient and convenient services can play a greater role in helping our export enterprises respond to international green economic and trade rules and reduce export costs.

Cui Weijie, Vice President of the Ministry of Commerce's International Trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute:The pilot free trade zones benchmark new international economic and trade rules, deepen exploration in traditional topics such as the "single window" for international trade, and take the lead in exploring and benchmarking in new areas such as new foreign trade formats and models and green trade. Through continuous breakthroughs in key areas, we pave the way for future accumulation. This is not only an important manifestation of leading high-level institutional opening-up, but also can help foreign trade companies reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enhance international competitiveness.

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