measures our reporter chen jing
the foreign trade situation in 2018 was better than expected, and the import and export scale exceeded 30 trillion yuan. in january 2019, the foreign trade also continued to stabilize and improve since last year. according to the data released by the general administration of customs, in january this year, china's foreign trade import and export both rebounded significantly, far exceeding expectations. the total import and export value was 2.73 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.7% year-on-year, realizing a good start in foreign trade. among them, export growth accelerated, and exports to major countries rebounded, with a year-on-year increase of 13.9%. although imports were affected by multiple factors, they still maintained a growth of 2.9%, and the monthly trade surplus expanded by 1.2 times
although the foreign trade situation is good, china us trade friction and other uncertain factors still cast a shadow over the development of china's foreign trade. in this context, how should we further optimize the structure of foreign trade and promote the high-quality development of foreign trade in the next step
"to promote the high-quality development of china's foreign trade, we should do three things: win the existing market, explore new markets and create new demand." bai ming, deputy director of the international market research institute of the research institute of the ministry of commerce, said in an interview with the china economic times
bai ming believes that, first of all, from the perspective of improving competitiveness, to promote the high-quality development of foreign trade, we should still adhere to changing the development mode of foreign trade. the transformation and upgrading of foreign trade is essentially the transformation and upgrading of industries, including basic industries such as semiconductor chips. if the foundation is not solid, there can be no high-level development. even if the development is carried out, it will be at risk. therefore, we must lay a good industrial foundation to let others "leave you"
secondly, bai ming said that only when foreign trade develops to a certain extent can it be regarded as "a thorn in the eye and a thorn in the flesh". at this stage, the high-quality development of china's foreign trade will also face new challenges. how to deal with new challenges? bai ming believes that we should form unique advantages in technology and make the key links irreplaceable. at the same time, we should also emphasize resolving economic and trade frictions through cooperation
finally, bai ming believes that the future supply side structural reform should have a demand side basis in the international market, and it is particularly critical to guide demand in the international market by increasing new supply in the future. in addition to enhancing competitiveness, we should also explore new blue oceans, which is also the embodiment of the high-quality development of foreign trade
facing the uncertainty brought by the sino us trade friction to china's foreign trade situation, professor yu miaojie, vice president of the national development research institute of peking university and an outstanding young scientist in beijing, told the china economic times that in the next step, we should first open up a number of key markets dominated by emerging industrial countries, and enterprises should also be prepared for market diversification
yu miaojie believes that the key to promoting the high-quality development of china's foreign trade is to improve the added value of products. in 2019, the rmb may appreciate slowly, which means that the pressure of chinese exports in international competition will increase relatively. therefore, the export of chinese products should not aim at fighting a price war, but should change from "price" to "quality" to enhance the added value of products
in recent years, cross-border e-commerce has gradually become a new growth point of foreign trade. yu miaojie believes that as an emerging trade form, cross-border e-commerce represents the main trade mode in the future. therefore, we should pay attention to the supporting construction of relevant domestic systems. including doing a good job in the pilot work of market procurement and trade mode
in addition, the transformation and upgrading of processing trade is also an important link in the high-quality development of foreign trade. where should the processing trade transferred from cage to bird go? in this regard, yu miaojie believes that capital intensive industries should be transferred to the central and western regions and northeast china compared with overseas due to their high industrial supporting requirements. labor intensive industries should be transferred to countries with low labor costs and stable political situation, including african and southeast asian countries