Peaking at $6.19 trillion, China’s foreign trade of goods reached an all-time high in 2021. It was an increase of 21.4% year on year. Among them, imports expanded to $2.75 trillion on a yearly basis, by 21.5%.
“Foreign trade faces uncertainties and pressure in 2022, but China’s foreign trade industry has achieved high development in recent years,” said Guo Weimin, spokesman for the fifth session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. “More efforts should be made to make use of cross-border e-commerce and other innovative formats to boost foreign trade, actively promote the integration of domestic and foreign trade, and boost the digitization level of trade.”
China is setting its GDP growth target at around 5.5% to focus on stabilizing economic fundamentals this year. As the world’s second-largest economy beefs up supportive measures to shore up growth against possible strong headwinds, said China’s Premier Li Keqiang on April 5th.
“The Chinese government has set the deficit-to-GDP ratio at around 2.8% for 2022 in a move to boost fiscal sustainability,” said Keqiang. “The special-purpose bonds for local government will total $1 trillion.”
China-US Agricultural Roundtable Forum
Chinese ambassador to the US said that agriculture is a highlight of China-US cooperation. The US exported more than $33 billion in agricultural products to China last year, a large increase over the prior record of $25 billion. About 100 distinguished guests from China and the US participated in the online 2022 China-US Agricultural Roundtable forum on March 21st.
China Foreign Trade in 2022
During the first two months of 2022, China’s trade with:
- the European Union reached $138.33 billion,
- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations reached $137.73 billion,
- and the US reached $124.35 billion.
The year-on-year growth rates of China’s trade values with the partners were 12.4%, 10.5% and 9.7%, respectively. This data is from the General Administration of Customs of China, shown on April 7th.
Pork Prices Decline
“Pork prices in China will continue declining next month, but at a slower pace than before due to the stockpiling of frozen pork,” said Zhu Zengyong, chief pork industry analyst at the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
The pork market in China is expected to reach a balance of supply and demand sometime between the second half of this year and early next year, according to Zengyong.
Covid-19 Update
Shanghai is currently experiencing its worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years, with more than 30,000 new infections reported between the beginning of March and March 30th. The city had been on lockdown since March 28th, and it was expected to reopen on Monday, April 11th. On Monday, Shanghai authorities began to release certain groups from lockdown.
The “zero-tolerance policy” is under great pressure while the voice of “live with the virus” has become increasingly dominant. Except for Shanghai, Changchun, and Shenyang, most other places in China continue to work and live almost like normal. However, people hesitate to travel domestically due to the potential risk of quarantine. The Chinese government has not yet supported the shift away from the “zero-tolerance policy.”
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