In the first half of 2021, China's import and export volume reached a record high of 18.07 trillion yuan, up 22.8% from the same period in 2019, marking the 13th consecutive month of positive year-on-year growth in monthly imports and exports, Li Kuiwen, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs and director of the statistics and analysis department, said on Wednesday. The momentum of steady growth in foreign trade was further consolidated.

At the press conference held by the State Information Office on the same day, Li Kuiwen introduced the situation of China's import and export in the first half of the year.

According to customs statistics, in the first half of this year, China's imports and exports of goods totaled 18.07 trillion yuan, up 27.1 percent over the same period last year. Exports accounted for 9.85 trillion yuan, up 28.1 percent; Imports reached 8.22 trillion yuan, up 25.9%. Compared with the same period in 2019, imports and exports increased by 22.8%, 23.8% and 21.7%, respectively.

In terms of imports and exports with different trading partners, in the first half of the year, China's imports and exports with ASEAN, the European Union and the United States, its top three trading partners, reached 2.66 trillion yuan, 2.52 trillion yuan and 2.21 trillion yuan respectively, up by 27.8%, 26.7% and 34.6% respectively. Imports and exports to Japan reached 1.18 trillion yuan, up 14.5%. In the same period, China's imports and exports to One Belt And One Road countries and RCEP(Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) trading partners increased by 27.5 percent and 22.7 percent respectively.

Talking about the reasons for the good performance of foreign trade data in the first half of this year, Li Kuiwen said that in the first half of this year, China's domestic economy has been stable and strengthened, and market entities have become more dynamic, which has provided strong support for the sustained and stable growth of foreign trade. The government's policy of stabilizing foreign trade has played a significant role in releasing the dividends. The sustained recovery of the global economy has boosted external demand. "In addition, the low base last year and price factors played a role in driving the growth of foreign trade to some extent. Influenced by the rise of international commodity prices, the preliminary estimate shows that the contribution rate of price to China's import growth in the first half of this year is 35.4%."

Looking forward to the later period, Li Kuiwen said that the current COVID-19 epidemic is still spreading in many parts of the world, the trend of the epidemic is complicated, and the development of foreign trade is still faced with many uncertain and unstable factors. Meanwhile, in the second half of last year, China's import and export volume increased by nearly 27% compared with the first half of last year. Under the influence of a high base, the year-on-year growth rate of import and export volume may slow down in the second half of this year, but the import and export volume is still expected to maintain a rapid growth for the whole year.