CHINA’S foreign trade will maintain steady growth despite a challenging external environment, as the country continues to strengthen endogenous impetus and expand multilateral economic and trade relations, experts have said.

China’s imports and exports expanded 0.4% year on year to total 23.55 trillion yuan (US$ 3.29 trillion) in the first seven months of 2023, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Since the second quarter, China’s monthly trade has remained above 3.4 trillion yuan.

In July alone, China’s foreign trade totaled 3.46 trillion yuan, up 25.7% from July 2019 and 4.5% above the 2020-2022 July average.

The latest data were in line with expectations and China’s foreign trade maintained stable operations, GAC spokesperson Lyu Daliang said. The fundamentals for long-term growth have not changed, Lyu added.

Zhang Jun, chief economist at China Galaxy Securities Co., said Chinese products have climbed up the global value chain after continuous industrial upgrading.

China’s general trade, which involves long industrial chains and high added values, rose 2.1% to 15.41 trillion yuan in the first seven months of the year. It accounted for 65.4% of the country’s total foreign trade value, up 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier.

The total export value of China’s three major tech-intensive green products — solar batteries, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles — soared 61.6% year on year in the first half of 2023.

Together, the three products contributed 1.8 percentage points to the country’s overall export growth during the period, customs data show.

China has been cultivating its economic and trade relations with Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership member countries, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and countries along the Belt and Road, providing Chinese companies with more opportunities to explore foreign markets, said Xu Yingming, an analyst at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. (Xinhua)