On October 14, during a press conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing, Lu Daliang, spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs and Director of the Statistical Analysis Department, shared insights on China’s import and export trends in the first three quarters of 2024. According to Lu, preliminary estimates indicate that cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.88 trillion yuan, marking an 11.5% growth.
In response to a reporter’s inquiry about the cross-border e-commerce performance in the third quarter and the customs initiatives to promote its healthy development, Lu highlighted that in the first half of the year, the country achieved a record-high cross-border e-commerce trade of 1.25 trillion yuan, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 13%. This segment constituted 5.9% of China’s total foreign trade, which is an improvement of 0.4 percentage points compared to the first half of 2023. Specifically, exports amounted to approximately 979.9 billion yuan, a 18.7% increase, while imports totaled 266.4 billion yuan, down by 3.9%.
Focusing on trade destinations, Lu noted that exports to the United States were particularly robust, accounting for 34.2%, followed by the UK at 8.1%, Germany at 6.2%, and France at 4.5%. He also mentioned that markets across Asia, including Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan, exhibited lively export activity. As for imports, the US contributed 16.7%, Australia 11.3%, and Japan 10.6%, with Germany, France, and New Zealand also being significant sources.
Analyzing the commodity structure, Lu reported that 27.3% of exports comprised clothing, footwear, and accessories, while electronic products like mobile phones constituted 14.4%, and home textiles made up 12.4%. On the import side, beauty and personal care products accounted for 28.8%, and fresh food represented 25.2%. Regionally, leading export provinces included Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangsu, while imports were primarily concentrated in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Beijing.
Looking ahead, Lu emphasized that customs has been actively supporting the growth of new business models such as cross-border e-commerce. He mentioned that in June, the General Administration of Customs, in collaboration with relevant departments, released guidelines to expand cross-border e-commerce exports and promote the establishment of overseas warehouses. He assured the public that customs is fully committed to implementing these initiatives, promoting paperless filing for overseas warehouses, enhancing intellectual property protections in the cross-border e-commerce sector, and continuing to deepen comprehensive reforms to facilitate high-quality development in this field.
