In the first half of this year, the province's import and export reached 205.602 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.4%. Exports totaled 123.26 billion yuan, up 7.5% year on year. Imports stood at 813.36 billion yuan, up 12.4% year on year.
The growth rate of imports and exports is higher than the national average, figures from the Nanjing Customs show.
In the meantime, the province's trade structure has been further optimized. The general trade saw its import and export grow by 11.2% from a year ago with increasing proportions while maintaining its dominant position. The growth rate of import and export of processing trade with lower added value dropped significantly.
This change has stemmed from the active response made by Jiangsu's foreign trade enterprises to the complicated and ever-changing international trade situation by shifting from "scale expansion" to "quality improvement."
The steady transformation of the growth trend has also been evidenced by the composition of export products. The mechanical and electrical products occupying 65.7% of the province's total export value maintained a rapid growth in exports in the first half of the year, and automobile exports increased by 40.7%.
The export growth of clothing, bags, toys and other traditional labor-intensive products has slowed down.
In terms of imports, with the acceleration of consumption upgrades, imports of high-quality consumer goods such as aquatic products, beef and cosmetics showed rapid growth.
In the first half of 2018, exports of mechanical and electrical products increased by 8.5%, accounting for 65.7% of the total value of exports.
Automobile exports increased by 40.7%. Exports of 7 traditional labor-intensive products grew by 2.1%, accounting for 16% of total exports.
The import of consumer goods such as aquatic products increased by 68.8%, beef by 49.7%, and cosmetics by 38.4%.
Industry insiders have cautioned that although the Sino-US trade friction exerted limited impact on the trade trend of the province in the first half of the year, the province's foreign trade growth will face more uncertainties in the second half of the year as China and the United States impose tariffs on some of the two sides.
(Source: ourjiangsu.com)
