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, Wang Lingjun, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, reported on my country's import and export situation in the first quarter of this year.
Since this year, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, my country has adhered to the general tone of work of seeking progress while maintaining stability, fully and accurately implemented the new development concept, accelerated the construction of a new development pattern, and solidly promoted high-quality development. Various existing policies and incremental policies have continued to make efforts and effective, the economic operation has started steadily, and the development trend has been new and improved. my country's foreign trade has been moving forward at the pressure, achieving scale growth and quality improvement. According to customs statistics, in the first quarter of this year, my country's import and export of goods was RMB 10.3 trillion, an increase of 1.3% year-on-year (same below). Among them, exports were 6.13 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.9%; imports were 4.17 trillion yuan, a decrease of 6%. Specifically, there are mainly four characteristics: First, the growth rate of imports and exports has rebounded month by month. In the first quarter, my country's import and export scale hit a record high in the same period, exceeding 10 trillion yuan for eight consecutive quarters. Judging from the monthly trend, imports and exports fell by 2.2% in January, basically the same in February, and increased by 6% in March.
The second is the proportion of imports and exports of private enterprises increasing. In the first quarter, my country's private enterprises imported and exported RMB 5.85 trillion, an increase of 5.8%, accounting for 56.8% of my country's total import and export value, an increase of 2.4 percentage points from the same period last year. During the same period, foreign-invested enterprises imported and exported RMB 2.99 trillion, an increase of 0.4%, accounting for 29% of the total import and export value.
Third, the growth rate of imports and exports to countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" is higher than the overall one. In the first quarter, my country's imports and exports to countries with jointly building the "Belt and Road" were 5.26 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.2%, 0.9 percentage points higher than the overall and accounting for 51.1% of the total import and export value. Among them, imports and exports to ASEAN were 1.71 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.1%.
Fourth, the import and export of mechanical and electrical products have grown rapidly. In the first quarter, my country imported and exported mechanical and electrical products at 5.29 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.7%. Among them, exports are growing faster, including household appliances, laptops, electronic components, etc.; imports are growing faster, including automatic data processing equipment and parts, ships and marine engineering equipment.
Overall, with the increasing number of external difficulties and challenges, all localities, departments and the vast number of foreign trade operators have responded actively to promote a stable start in my country's foreign trade imports and exports in the first quarter.
Recently, the US government's abuse of tariffs has inevitably had a negative impact on global trade, including China and the United States. China resolutely implemented necessary countermeasures at the first time, not only to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, but also to defend international trade rules and international fairness and justice. China will unswervingly promote high-level opening up to the outside world and carry out mutually beneficial and win-win economic and trade cooperation with all countries.
Customs will resolutely implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, base themselves on customs responsibilities, strictly implement various countermeasures against the United States in accordance with the law, and safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests. Accelerate the construction of smart customs and international cooperation, innovate customs supervision systems, continuously improve supervision efficiency and service levels, promote the convenience of customs clearance for enterprises, and promote the stable development of foreign trade with practical results of better supervision, higher safety, greater convenience and stricter crackdown on slander.
