July clothing economy has rebounded

Analysts said that the recovery of foreign trade data in July was related to the low base of the same period last year, the improvement of external data, and the promotion of foreign trade policies. For some time in the future, the policies for promoting foreign trade will also be gradually implemented and continuously fermented, which will play a supporting role in the improvement of foreign trade. However, it should be noted that given the current trend of frequent trade frictions and a marked increase in trade protectionism across the globe, the environment facing China’s foreign trade development remains complicated and the challenges and pressures remain high.

The situation of major trading partners is getting better. The rebound of foreign trade data in July was not related to the low base of the same period last year. The reporter noted that in July of last year, China's foreign trade peak season was not booming, the growth rate of imports and exports was significantly lower than market expectations, and the year-on-year growth rate of exports and imports was only 1.6% and 1.2%.

In addition to the base factor, Liu Ligang, chief economist of ANZ Greater China, said that the tightness of liquidity has significantly eased in July, which has also helped trade companies receive greater support in terms of credit. At the same time, recent US and European data have clearly improved.

In bilateral trade with major trading partners, in July, except for the decline in trade with Japan, China’s trade with the European Union, the United States, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations all showed a clear improvement from the previous month. China-EU bilateral trade volume totaled 50.33 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 5%. The total value of bilateral trade between China and the United States was 44.31 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 10%. The total value of bilateral trade between China and ASEAN was 37.17 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 13.1%. During the same period, the total value of bilateral trade between the Mainland and Hong Kong was US$29.28 billion, an increase of 2.8%. The total value of bilateral trade between China and Japan was 27.08 billion U.S. dollars, a decrease of 6.1%.

Among export commodities, exports of mechanical and electrical products have increased steadily, and exports of some traditional labor-intensive products have shown good growth. In July, China's export of mechanical and electrical products was 102.85 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 4%. In the same period, garment exports reached 18.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 13.9%; textiles reached 9.58 billion U.S. dollars, up 19.7%.

Import volume data shows that iron ore imports have increased by 26.4%, which is higher than the 6.8% in the previous month. Crude oil imports increased by 19.6% year-on-year, which is also higher than 2.1% in the previous month. Imports of copper rose by 12.0% year-on-year, also higher than the 9.7% in the previous month. Soybean imports also increased by 22.7%, slightly lower than the 23.3% recorded in the previous month.

The effect of foreign trade policy will continue to release the continuous cooling of foreign trade data in May and June of this year. In particular, the import and export in June hit a negative growth rate for the first time in 16 months. Under this situation, the State Council executive meeting decided to promote the promotion of trade facilitation. Measures for the stable development of exports. Since then, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Several Opinions on Promoting Steady Growth of Imports and Exports and Structural Adjustments," and introduced 12 measures to effectively reduce the burden on foreign trade companies.

At present, the measures that have begun to be implemented mainly include: From August 1 to the end of the five months, the export inspection fee will be waived, and customs will expedite the speed of customs clearance. Financial institutions will cooperate with foreign trade companies in the **. At the same time, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine no longer carries out export inspections on 1507 commodities.

Some analysts said that the focus of this policy is mainly on promoting trade facilitation measures and reducing the cost of exporting enterprises. In the short term, the policy will provide support to difficult-to-retire foreign trade companies, give China's foreign trade companies a chance to transform and upgrade, and open up markets, especially to give SMEs more opportunities to adapt to the foreign trade environment.

In the longer term, the policy effect of promoting foreign trade will continue to be released. Bank of Communications (3.85,0.01,0.26%) chief economist Lian Ping said that in the context of the negative growth of both China's import and export growth from the same period last year, the State Council’s executive meeting in late July introduced timely credit support and export tax rebates. The policy of promoting trade growth within the package is expected to have a positive effect on exports in the future.

Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng also said in recent days that from the current situation, although the difficulties and pressures faced in the next few months are still not small, they are confident to complete the year's foreign trade development goals.

However, it should be noted that given the current trend of frequent trade frictions and a marked increase in trade protectionism on a global scale, the environment facing the development of China’s foreign trade is still complicated, and the challenges and pressures remain high. Lian Ping said that it is expected that the growth rate of exports for the whole year will be slightly higher than that of the previous year, but it is unlikely that there will be a substantial rebound.