Yangshan Port in Shanghai File photo: VCG

Over the course of 2024, China's foreign trade development has maintained a good momentum, with overall quality and structure improvement and stable growth. The achievements have not come easily considering the current slowing global economic recovery, intensifying trade protectionism and intertwined geopolitical conflicts.

China's foreign goods trade increased by 4.9 percent year-on-year to reach 39.79 trillion yuan ($5.45 trillion) in the first 11 months of 2024, demonstrating stable growth and ongoing structural improvements, data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed.

"With the concerted efforts of both stock and incremental policies in the field, China is expected to end the year with a smooth performance in foreign trade and achieve the goal of stable quality and quantity," Lü Daliang, spokesperson of the GAC, said at a press conference on December 10.

Sharing market to all

While maintaining a stable growth in foreign trade, China also vowed to share its vast market with the world by boosting the expansion of imports, including policy support, platform construction and transport facilitation.

In the first 11 months, China's imports from all the least developed countries (LDCs) that have established diplomatic relations with China increased by 12.4 percent, nearly 10 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of China's imports, according to GAC data.

Honey from Rwanda, wild aquatic products from Uganda, peanuts and sesame from Chad, fresh pine nuts from Afghanistan ... In 2024, more and more agricultural products have been exported to China, opening its market to more and more countries through major trade events and e-commerce.

The 7th China International Import Expo (CIIE), held in November in Shanghai, featured 37 LDCs, with the event organizers providing more than 120 free exhibition booths specifically for businesses from these countries.

"This is the second time that we have participated in the CIIE … We have 30 companies coming to the expo this year compared with about 20 in 2023," Kassim Kone, a delegate from the Mali Export Promotion Agency of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Mali, told the Global Times, an indication of how Mali values this event.

Bangladesh also showcased a variety of products at the 7th CIIE, ranging from leather to food. Some of these products are already being exported to China, Md Ziaur Rahman, the commercial counselor of the Embassy of Bangladesh in China, told the Global Times. 

"Since its launch, the CIIE has been providing facilitation for LDCs. For the past seven years, more and more products from LDCs have entered the Chinese market through the CIIE, which contributed to the industrial development and improvement of people's livelihood in these countries," Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on November 7 at a regular press conference.

Shanghai launched the 2024 Shanghai Silk Road E-commerce Carnival in May 2024, under which Meione (Shanghai) Network Technology Co conducted a special promotion event exclusively for African products, selling raw materials such as cocoa cubes, coffee extracts and tea extracts from African countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, Meione said in a statement shared with the Global Times.

China has been facilitating market access for more imports, especially for LDCs. Starting from December 1, 2024, China gave zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines to LDCs. China is the first developing country and major global economy to implement this initiative, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said.

Regarding China's zero-tariff treatment policy for LDCs, of which Bangladesh is one, Rahman said that "this policy will significantly promote trade for countries like ours, and we are very grateful for it."

"This demonstrates China's commitment to forge a global development partnership, under which no country or individual should be left behind," Zhu Qiucheng, CEO of Ningbo New Oriental Electric Industrial Development, an exporter of home furnishing products, told the Global Times on Friday. 

High-tech, high-quality

China's foreign trade, while with increasing imports from more countries and keeping a stable growth in 2024, also improved its mix, with exports of high-quality and high-tech products particularly increased.

Specifically, mechanical and electrical products accounted for nearly 60 percent of exports in the first 11 months, of which automatic data processing equipment and its parts, integrated circuits and automobiles exports grew by double digits, according to GAC data.

Exports of the "new trio," namely, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products, have become China's new business cards in the world. It means that in the "smile curve" of the global manufacturing industry, Chinese foreign trade enterprises are moving toward the upstream of the global value chain.

The curve is called a "smile" because the two ends of the curve (R&D and after-sales service) have higher value, while the middle section (manufacturing) is relatively lower in terms of value creation.

According to the latest data from China Automobile Dealers Association, China's cumulative export volume of new-energy vehicles was 1.72 million units in the first 10 months of 2024, an increase of 15 percent year-on-year.

"Compared with labor-intensive goods such as textiles and clothing, the 'new trio' represents technology-intensive products, which are transformed and upgraded to high-end, intelligent and green - meaning higher added value," said Zhu.

The transformation and upgrading of China's economic and trade structure have been demonstrated through China-initiated trade events, such as the CIIE, the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), and the China International Supply Chain Expo.

The Canton Fair, for example, used to mainly showcase consumer goods. But in recent years, the proportion of intermediate and capital goods on display has increased to 12 percent, the Global Times learned from the organizer.

In the machinery exhibition area where capital goods are concentrated, the number of booths has increased by more than 50 percent in the past five years.

With increasingly advanced technologies, together with China's world-leading manufacturing level and stable supply chains, Chinese enterprises are making high-tech products more affordable for the world, Liu Jinshi, chief engineer of Ston Robotics Changzhou Co, told the Global Times.

While China's position in the global trade market is gradually shifting to the middle and high-end in terms of industrial chains and value chains, the country's trade partners are also diversifying. In particular, its trade with developing and emerging markets grew at a fast pace.

In the first 11 months, China's trade with countries participating in the Belt and Road cooperation saw a year-on-year increase of 6 percent, while that with ASEAN members rose by 8.6 percent. In this period, China's foreign trade with Latin America increased by 7.9 percent and that with Africa up 4.8 percent, according to GAC.

Strong momentum

The foreign trade of goods this year showed a good performance, both from the perspective of trading partners and the structure of traded goods, Wan Zhe, an economist and professor at the Belt and Road School of Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times.

"The export growth of products with high technologies is strong, reflecting the increasing quality of China's industrial development," said Wan.

China's economy has demonstrated strong resilience, great potential and vitality. The country is building a new economic development pattern of "dual circulation" with the domestic market as the mainstay and the domestic and overseas markets reinforcing each other and China is capable of resisting the impact of external shocks, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen, said on November 22 at a press conference.

The State Council recently issued a package of policy measures aimed at promoting the stable growth of foreign trade, while the MOFCOM, the GAC and other departments launched specific measures to accelerate the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade, further optimize the business environment at ports, and promote the convenience of customs clearance for enterprises, said Lü.

The recent Central Economic Work Conference further stressed efforts to promote high-standard opening up while keeping foreign trade and foreign investment stable as being one of the key tasks for 2025, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

"Looking ahead, favorable conditions are stronger than unfavorable factors, such as declining global demand and growing trade barriers and protectionism. There is a basis and support for China to achieve steady growth of imports and exports," said Zhu.