Foreign trade poised for steady growth amid headwinds

China's foreign trade will sustain steady growth for the remainder of 2024 and exporters should prepare for potential challenges, including higher tariffs, by enhancing product competitiveness and expanding sales in emerging markets, government officials and market observers said on Thursday.

These steps will help address possible obstacles posed by anticipated policy shifts in certain countries, such as trade remedy measures and additional countervailing duties, they noted.

China's foreign trade increased 5.2 percent year-on-year to 36.02 trillion yuan ($5.03 trillion) in the January-October period, while its exports rose 6.7 percent on a yearly basis to 20.8 trillion yuan, statistics released on Thursday by the General Administration of Customs showed.

Lyu Daliang, director of the administration's department of statistics and analysis, said that thanks to practical policies introduced earlier this year, China is on track to achieve its annual goal of steady foreign trade growth in terms of both quality and volume.

Zhao Ping, dean of the Academy of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in Beijing, said that changes in global demand have created opportunities for Chinese exporters to remain competitive in the next stage.

Against the backdrop of accelerated low-carbon initiatives globally and heightened geopolitical tensions, many countries face high energy prices, and they have recorded a surge in demand for China's electromechanical products, especially those tech-intensive green offerings, said Zhao.

Customs data show that the value of China's electromechanical product exports, including electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and integrated circuits, reached 12.36 trillion yuan in the first 10 months, up 8.5 percent year-on-year. This accounted for 59.4 percent of the nation's total export value.

Hisense Ronshen (Yangzhou) Refrigerator Co, a fridge and freezer manufacturer based in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, saw its export value soar 38.5 percent year-on-year to 2.59 billion yuan in the first three quarters.

"In addition to shipping large-capacity refrigerators and freezers to developed markets, we have also built sales networks in emerging markets, such as Indonesia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan, to mitigate risks from market volatility in certain countries in recent years," said Ma Lili, head of the company's production unit.

"We are now able to develop everything — from energy efficiency and capacity to color and additional functions — to meet the specific needs of local customers," Ma added.

Zhou Maohua, a researcher at China Everbright Bank, said the main risks facing Chinese exporters include protectionism, unilateralism and supply chain disruptions resulting from geopolitical conflicts.

"While the demand from traditional markets such as Europe and the United States is slowing and protectionist policies have caused some disruptions to China's foreign trade, global demand — driven by many countries' ongoing urbanization, industrialization and consumption upgrade — is still expanding," Zhou said.

Supported by a strong industrial base and continuous optimization in trade structure and quality, as well as policy stimulus, China's foreign trade is expected to operate steadily in the coming months, with signs indicating a potential recovery in the global demand for electronic products, he added.

Anticipating the US' trade policies on China in the next phase, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday that China is willing to strengthen communication with the US, expand cooperation and resolve differences, all based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win outcomes.

The goal is to promote the stable, healthy and sustainable development of Sino-US economic and trade relations, benefiting both countries and the world, said He Yongqian, a spokeswoman for the ministry.

Speaking on Wednesday at a subforum of the seventh China International Import Expo in Shanghai, Tang Wenhong, assistant minister of commerce, said that amid the current headwinds challenging economic globalization and the accelerated restructuring of global industries and supply chains, fostering open cooperation is a common expectation of the international business community.

China opposes protectionism and all forms of "decoupling" activities, Tang added.