CCTV News: On April 14, the State Council Information Office held a regular press conference on economic data in the first quarter.
At the press conference, a reporter asked: This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the EU. Please introduce the import and export situation of China and Europe in the first quarter? What are your expectations for the trend of China-EU trade?
Wang Lingjun, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, responded that China and the EU are each other's most important trading partners, and the bilateral trade volume has ranged from US$2.4 billion in the early stage of diplomatic relations to US$780 billion now. In the first quarter of this year, my country's imports and exports to the EU reached 1.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.4%, which is equivalent to more than 10 million yuan in trade transactions every minute.
China and Europe are highly complementary and closely integrated with interests, promoting the sustained and positive development of bilateral trade. Let’s look at the consumer goods field from three fields. In the first quarter, 72% of bags, 51.7% of passenger cars, and 42.2% of cosmetics imported by my country came from the EU. my country’s exports of electronic appliances, clothing, clothing accessories, and daily chemical products to the EU increased by 7.7%, 3%, and 16.1% respectively. Looking at the high-tech field, in the first quarter, my country imported 64 billion yuan of high-end equipment from the EU, an increase of 30.4%, accounting for 32.9% of the total import value of similar products in my country. my country's export of industrial robots and high-end machine tools to the EU increased by 81.9% and 11.7% respectively. Finally, looking at the agricultural field, in the first quarter, my country's imports of beer and pork from the EU increased by 25.7% and 17.5% respectively, while my country's exports of aquatic products and dried and fresh fruits to the EU increased by 34.4% and 10.8% respectively.
The total economic output of China and the EU exceeds one-third of the world. Both sides are advocates of economic globalization and trade liberalization, firm defenders and supporters of the WTO, and have broad common interests and huge space for cooperation in many aspects. In the context of increasing global economic instability and uncertainty, China and Europe have communicated closely and worked together to jointly maintain free and open trade and investment, and maintain the stability and smooth global industrial chain and supply chain, which will inject more stability and certainty into both sides and the world economy.
