F REIGN TRADE - 中国国际贸易促进委员会

ECONOMY
Data Watch on China’s Foreign Trade
and Investment in 2012
Shen Danyang, Spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce of China
China’s foreign trade in 2012
According to statistics of the Customs, China’s exports and imports
in the year of 2012 reached $3.86676 trillion, up by 6.2% over
the same period of last year. Specifically, exports stood at $2.04893
trillion, up by 7.9% year on year; imports $1.81783 trillion, up by 4.3%.
The twelve months saw a trade surplus of $231.1 billion, increasing by
48.1%. Four obvious features are as follows:
Steady increase in trade with important partners including
the United States and ASEAN.
In 2012, China’s bilateral trade with the United States reported
8.5% increase over 2011, 10.2% increase with ASEAN,
11.2% increase with Russia, and 1.8% increase with Brazil. While
the bilateral trade with the EU and Japan decreased 3.7% and 3.9%
respectively.
Continuing significant increase in exports of Central and
Western China.
During the whole year of 2012, the exports in Central China
rose 21.8% and that in Western China increased 37.8%. The exports
in Chongqing, Anhui, Henan and Sichuan Provinces increased by
94.5%, 56.6%, 54.3% and 32.5% respectively. The increasing rate in
Eastern China was 5%, in which the exports in Guangdong, Jiangsu,
Zhejiang and Shandong Provinces rose
by 7.9%, 5.1%, 3.8% and 2.4% respectively.
Steady increase in the expansion
rate of exports and imports under the
general trade.
In 2012, China’s general trade
value was $2.00983 trillion, up by 4.4%
year on year, in which exports value
increased by 7.7% to $988.01 billion,
while imports value increased by 1.4%
to $1.02182 trillion. The processing
trade still witnessed a sluggish growth.
The total value of processing trade
was $1.34395 trillion, up by 3%, in
which the exports value rose by 3.3% to
$862.78 billion, while the imports value
increased 2.4% to $481.17 billion.
Steady increase in exports of
mechanical and electrical products, as
well as labor-intensive products.
In the year of 2012, China exported
$1.17942 trillion worth of mechanical
and electrical products, 8.7% higher
than that of last year, 0.8 percentage
points higher than the growth rate of
the nation’s total exports over the same
period. The total exports value of seven
kinds of labor-intensive products including
textile, apparel, shoes, luggage,
plastics, furniture and toys increased
by 8.6%, and the total amount reached
$418.89 billion. The imports of energyand
resource-related products saw significant
increases in 2012, in which 8.4%
increase for iron ore, 6.8% for crude oil,
29.8% for coal, and 11.2% for soybeans.
Utilization of foreign
investment
In 2012, China approved the
establishment of 24,925 new foreigninvested
enterprises in non-financial
28