The State Council Information Office will hold a press conference in the press room of the State Council Information Office at 10 am on Tuesday, January 13th, 2015. Zheng Yuesheng, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs and director of the General Statistics Department, will introduce the import and export situation in 2014 and answer questions from reporters.

    [Zheng Yuesheng, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs and director of the General Statistics Department]2014 is the first year of China’s comprehensive deepening reform. In the past year, the world economy was still in a period of deep adjustment after the international financial crisis, and domestic economic development entered a new normal. Under the correct leadership and unified deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, various reforms in the foreign trade field were steadily advanced, and various regions, departments and foreign trade enterprises conscientiously implemented policies and measures to promote the stable growth of foreign trade. China’s foreign trade has continued to grow steadily and its operation has remained within a reasonable range. At the same time, China’s foreign trade import and export has also made positive progress in improving quality, improving efficiency and optimizing structure.

According to customs statistics, in 2014, China’s total import and export value was 26.43 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.3% over 2013. Among them, the export was 14.39 trillion yuan, up by 4.9%; Imports were 12.04 trillion yuan, down 0.6%; The trade surplus was 2.35 trillion yuan, up 45.9%. In dollar terms, in 2014, China’s import and export, export and import increased by 3.4%, 6.1% and 0.4% respectively.

The main situation of China’s foreign trade import and export in 2014. First, the growth rate of import and export is stable and positive. In the first quarter of 2014, China’s import and export value was 5.9 trillion yuan, down 3.8%; In the second quarter, the import and export was 6.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.7%; Import and export in the third quarter was 7 trillion yuan, up by 7.1%; In the fourth quarter, imports and exports reached 7 trillion yuan, up 4%. Among them, exports decreased by 6.1% in the first quarter, increased by 3.4% and 12.7% in the second and third quarters respectively, and increased by 8.7% in the fourth quarter; In terms of imports, it decreased by 1.3% in the first quarter, remained basically the same in the second quarter, increased by 0.8% in the third quarter and decreased by 1.6% in the fourth quarter.

2. General trade grew steadily, while processing trade grew steadily. In 2014, China’s general trade import and export was 14.21 trillion yuan, up 4.2%, accounting for 53.8% of China’s total import and export value in the same period. In the same period, the import and export of processing trade was 8.65 trillion yuan, up 2.8%, accounting for 32.7%.

3. Bilateral trade with the EU and the United States grew steadily, trade with Japan and Hong Kong declined, and trade with emerging markets performed well. In 2014, the European Union, the United States, ASEAN, Hong Kong and Japan were my top five trading partners. Among them, my bilateral trade volume with the EU and the United States was 3.78 trillion yuan and 3.41 trillion yuan respectively, up by 8.9% and 5.4% respectively. The bilateral trade volume with Hong Kong and Japan was 2.31 trillion yuan and 1.92 trillion yuan respectively, down by 7.2% and 1% respectively. In the same period, China’s bilateral trade volume with ASEAN, Africa, Russia, India and other emerging markets was 2.95 trillion yuan, 1.36 trillion yuan, 585.19 billion yuan and 433.55 billion yuan, up 7.1%, 4.3%, 5.6% and 6.8% respectively.

4. The import and export of private enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises increased, while the import and export of state-owned enterprises declined slightly. In 2014, the import and export of private enterprises was 9.13 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.1%, accounting for 34.5% of China’s total import and export value in the same period. In the same period, the import and export of foreign-invested enterprises was 12.19 trillion yuan, up 2.4%, accounting for 46.1%; The import and export of state-owned enterprises was 4.59 trillion yuan, down 1.3%, accounting for 17.4%.

5. Exports of mechanical and electrical products and traditional labor-intensive products grew steadily. In 2014, the export of mechanical and electrical products in China was 8.05 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.6%, accounting for 56% of the total export value. In the same period, the export of seven categories of labor-intensive products, such as textiles, clothing, luggage, footwear, toys, furniture and plastic products, was 2.98 trillion yuan, up by 4%, accounting for 20.7%.

6. Imports of consumer goods accelerated, while imports of major commodities increased in price and fell. In 2014, China’s imports of consumer goods reached 936.27 billion yuan, up by 14.9%, which was significantly faster than the overall growth rate of China’s imports in the same period, accounting for 7.8% of China’s total imports in the same period. In the same period, the import volume of major commodities maintained growth, including 930 million tons of imported iron ore, an increase of 13.8%; Imported crude oil was 310 million tons, up by 9.5%; 71.399 million tons of soybeans, an increase of 12.7%; 14.432 million tons of steel, an increase of 2.5%; 4.825 million tons of copper, an increase of 7.4%. In addition, imported coal was 290 million tons, down by 10.9%; Imported refined oil was 29.997 million tons, down by 24.2%. In the same period, the import prices of China’s imported commodities generally fell, with the average import price of iron ore falling by 23.4%, crude oil by 6.1%, coal by 15.2%, refined oil by 4.6%, soybean by 6.8% and copper by 6.1%.

Seven, foreign trade export leading index fell for the third consecutive month. In December, China’s foreign trade export leading index was 40.1, down by 0.7 compared with November, the third consecutive month of decline, the lowest point since December 2013, indicating that China’s export growth is still facing certain pressure in the first quarter of this year.