Although China's imports and exports continued to decline in the first quarter, the basic trend of foreign trade returning to a good level has not changed. It is gratifying to note that in March this year, China's exports grew positively for the first time in nine months, up 18.7% year-on-year. It shows that the role of a series of policies and measures launched by the state to promote foreign trade development has begun to show.
At a press conference held by the General Administration of Customs on April 13, 2016, spokesman Huang Songping said that since 2016, the global economic recovery has been slow, world trade has continued to shrink, China's import and export of goods still faces a weak external environment, and the value of import and export in the first quarter has both declined. However, we should see that China's foreign trade structure is still constantly optimizing. Easy conditions are also improving. Exports are beginning to show a steady trend. Private enterprises'foreign trade also shows strong vitality. In terms of imports, it is still difficult for China's imports to recover significantly because of the year-on-year decline in commodity prices. Overall, the structure of China's foreign trade has been improved in the course of constant adjustment, and the fundamentals of stabilization and improvement remain unchanged.
According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, in the first quarter of this year, China's total value of import and export of goods trade was 520 billion yuan, down 5.9% from last year. Among them, export was 3 trillion yuan, down 4.2% from the same period last year; import was 2.2 trillion yuan, down 8.2% from the same period last year; trade surplus was 810.2 billion yuan, expanding by 8.5%. China's imports and exports continued to decline in the first quarter.
In 2016, the foreign trade situation is still grim and complex, and downward pressure is still large. The positive factors to promote foreign trade development are still accumulating. With the measures to stabilize foreign trade growth being put in place gradually, the focus of stabilizing foreign trade development still needs to be put on the implementation of national policies. Only by stabilizing the structure of foreign trade, can China's foreign trade import and export be steadily restored.