Prasar Bharati:
I have two questions. First, can you provide us with the data of the bilateral trade of India and China. Second, what steps is China taking to reduce the trade deficit with India?
Zou Zhiwu:
Thank you for your question. Mr. Huang please answer this one.
Huang Guohua:
According to our statistics, the total trade value between China and India in 2019 was 639.52 billion yuan, an increase of 1.6% year-on-year. China's exports to India were 515.63 billion yuan, an increase of 2.1%, and imports were 123.89 billion yuan, a decrease of 0.2%. The trade surplus in China's favor was 391.74 billion yuan. The two countries are important emerging economies. Strengthening exchanges and cooperation are of great significance to both countries, and will promote global progress and prosperity.
In October last year, President Xi Jinping was invited to India to attend the second informal meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which enhanced the in-depth communications between the two countries, and promoted mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields. At present, China's export products have a relatively strong competitive advantage in the Indian market. At the same time, we also welcome more Indian high-quality products to enter the large Chinese market. We believe that deepening our economic and trade cooperation is conducive to promoting a healthier, smoother and more balanced development of China-India trade. Thank you.
China News Service:
We have noticed that China recently issued the "Guiding Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Promoting High-quality Trade Development." What new progress was made in this regard in 2019? Thank you.
Zou Zhiwu:
Thank you for your question. Last year, the trend of high-quality development and steady improvement in China's foreign trade was obvious. I think it is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
The first is the continuous optimization of the trade mode and structure. In 2019, the import and export of general trade, which with a longer industrial chain and higher added value, can better reflects the independent development capabilities of enterprises, increased by 5.6%, accounting for 59% of our foreign trade, and this proportion increased by 1.2 percentage points when compared with the statistics of 2018.
Second, new trade dynamics increased significantly. Last year, new forms of foreign trade, such cross-border e-commerce, continued to flourish. Imports and exports through the Customs' cross-border e-commerce management platform reached 186.21 billion yuan, an increase of 38.3%. Imports and exports through market procurement methods reached 562.95 billion yuan, an increase of 19.7%. Together, they contribute an increase of nearly 14% to overall foreign trade growth.
Third, the trade market has become more diversified. While Chinese companies continue to cultivate their traditional export markets, they also continue to develop new ones with remarkable results. Just now, we talked about the Belt and Road Initiative. In 2019, China's exports to the countries along the Belt and Road, as well as Latin American countries, saw an increased proportion of the total. This is a very obvious result of opening new markets.
Fourth, there has been a significant increase in the international competitiveness. In 2019, the price index of China's exported commodities rose by 2.8%, the price index of imported commodities rose by 1.4%, and the terms of trade index stood at 101.4, indicating that, with the same amount of goods being exported, we can exchange them for a greater number of commodities. From this perspective, our competitiveness has been further improved. According to the latest WTO data, from January to September 2019, the global market share of China's mechanical and electrical products, and labor-intensive products increased by 0.2 and 0.9 percentage points, respectively. At the same time, exports of some high value-added products maintained good growth. For example, last year, China's integrated circuit exports increased by 25.3%, semiconductor device exports by 26.3%, solar cell exports 47.5%, and metal processing machine tools nearly 15%. The effect of export brand building is also quite significant. Last year, the export of Chinese-brand products was 2.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 12%, accounting for nearly 17% of total export value. This number has also increased by 1.1 percentage points from 2018.
Fifth, imports of consumer products for people's livelihoods have grown rapidly. Last year, we successfully hosted the second China International Import Expo, benefiting from the lowering of the import value-added tax rate and the cancellation of some pharmaceutical import tariffs. We actively expanded the import of consumer goods, enriched the supply of domestic goods, and better met the people's growing needs for a better life. In 2019, China's imports of consumer goods increased by 19%, including imports of fruits, cosmetics and aquatic products that increased significantly, reaching 39.8%, 38.8% and 37.6% respectively. The import of electric manned vehicles increased 1.2 times, and the import of human vaccines increased by nearly 90%, which show that our huge consumer market has played a very important role in driving the growth of consumer goods imports. Thank you.
