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In the first seven months of this year, my country's foreign trade development has achieved very impressive results, with the total value of imports and exports of goods reaching 24.83 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.2%. Among them, exports reached 14.26 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.7%; imports reached 10.57 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.4%; and the trade surplus reached 3.69 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.6%. In terms of US dollars, the total value of imports and exports reached 3.5 trillion US dollars, an increase of 3.5%. Compared with a slight increase of 0.2% in RMB terms and a decrease of 5% in US dollar terms in 2023, the foreign trade rebounded strongly in the first seven months of 2024, significantly better than expected by all parties.

In the past few years, world trade has faced many unfavorable factors, including weak growth in major economies, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, intensified geopolitical competition, and the rise of trade protectionism.International TradeCosts are rising, the environment is deteriorating, and expansion is slowing down. When we cannot control or influence these exogenous variables, how to improve our internal strength, tap our own potential, and continuously improve our international competitiveness is what we should do under difficult conditions. The foreign trade results for the first seven months of this year fully show that my country's foreign trade has achieved remarkable results in improving quality and efficiency, stabilizing scale and optimizing structure.

First of all, although my country's foreign trade, as part of world trade, is inevitably affected by the global situation, at present, my country's performance is better than the world as a whole. According to WTO statistics, in the first quarter of 2024, global trade volume fell by 2%, while my country's foreign trade in US dollars increased by 1.5% during the same period. It can be said that since the beginning of this year, my country's foreign trade has passed the difficult period after the epidemic and has resumed a stable growth trend, fully demonstrating the resilience and vitality of my country's foreign trade.

Secondly, high-quality development requires quantitative growth, but it is more reflected in the optimization of structure, which is fully reflected in the changes in the structure of my country's export products and trade modes. In the first seven months, my country exported 8.41 trillion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, an increase of 8.3%, accounting for 59% of the total value of China's exports. In fact, mechanical and electrical products have long become my country's primary export products, but for a long time, my country's mechanical and electrical product exports were mainly carried out through processing trade, that is, my country imported intermediate products and parts, processed and assembled final products for export. Although the trade volume was high, the domestic added value was limited. Among them, consumer electronics products such as mobile phones, computers, and home appliances all have such a phenomenon. After the continuous efforts of local enterprises in my country in the past 20 years, my country has made great progress in the production and research and development of intermediate products, and its dependence on imported intermediate products has been significantly reduced. At the same time, the market share of local enterprises' own brands has increased rapidly, not only in the domestic market but also in the export market, and many of them have occupied a dominant position in the market. This change is particularly significant in the field of consumer electronics products. Xiaomi, Midea, Lenovo, etc. have become our main exporters.

At the same time, we have also changed from relying on imports to exporting a large number of parts, including automatic data processing equipment and its parts exports of 815.88 billion yuan, an increase of 11.6%, and integrated circuit exports of 640.91 billion yuan, an increase of 25.8%. Although we are still subject to others in high-end chips, my country has already acquired a certain degree of international competitiveness in traditional chips.

In addition, automobile exports have achieved explosive growth in recent years and have quickly surpassed South Korea, Germany and Japan to become the world's largest automobile exporter. The automobile industry is the epitome of the electromechanical industry and a symbolic industry that represents the level of industrialization of a country. With the opportunity of technological transformation in automobile electrification, my country has taken the lead in the field of electric vehicles and also boosted the overall capacity of the automobile industry. In the first seven months, my country's automobile exports amounted to 462.86 billion yuan, an increase of 20.7%, which has exceeded the export of mobile phones. Correspondingly, in terms of trade methods, general trade accounts for 64.7%, while processing trade accounts for only 17.4%, indicating that the endogenous driving force of my country's foreign trade has significantly increased. Chinese companies are actively climbing to both ends of the smile curve, not only self-reliant in technology and brand, but also gaining more voice in international market channels through cross-border e-commerce and other means.

Third, my country's foreign trade geographical structure is more diversified, especially the mutual benefit and win-win results with developing countries are huge, which promotes the world economy to develop in a more balanced and sustainable direction. my country has always been committed to developing mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation with countries around the world, but developed countries have long dominated my country's foreign trade geographical structure in terms of market size and industrial advantages. However, with the continuous growth of developing countries' economies, the status of developing countries as my country's foreign trade partners is gradually improving. It is particularly important to point out that as my country upgrades to capital and technology-intensive industries, the proportion of developed countries in my country's exports has declined, while the proportion of developing countries has increased. This shows that the result of my country's industrial upgrading is that the complementarity between my country and developing countries is increasing, while the competitiveness with developed countries is increasing. In particular, the industries that my country focuses on developing have a strong competitive relationship with the existing industries in developed countries, such as the automobile industry. Most developing countries are in the early stages of industrialization and have a large demand for my country's intermediate and capital goods, which are of greater value in absorbing my country's medium and high-tech manufacturing capacity. At the same time, my country supports the infrastructure construction of developing countries through the "Belt and Road" initiative, and promotes their industrialization process by carrying out foreign investment in local areas, while cultivating the export market for my country's industrial products. Therefore, at present and in the future, the economic and trade exchanges between my country and developing countries will show a stronger mutually beneficial and win-win relationship, which will have important positive significance for promoting cooperation among the global South countries and promoting economic growth in the South countries.

The achievements of my country's foreign trade development in the first seven months of 2024 are encouraging, but more importantly, we should see the structural and long-term forces behind the data. As long as we adhere to high-quality development led by innovation, persist in creating new quality productivity, and continuously improve the industrial technology strength, we will surely be able to break through the current short-term obstacles and constraints, maintain healthy and stable growth of foreign trade, and contribute to the balanced and sustainable development of my country's economy and even the world economy.

(The author is the dean of the China WTO Research Institute at the University of International Business and Economics)

Author: Tu Xinquan