my country’s foreign trade industry is completing a phased transformation, completely bidding farewell to the past extensive growth model that relied solely on low prices and large quantities. The export structure continues to be optimized. The proportion of exports of high-tech and high value-added products has increased year by year, and now accounts for more than 35% of total exports. New energy equipment, photovoltaic modules, lithium batteries, and industrial machinery and equipment have become the core main force driving export growth. In comparison, the export growth rate of traditional textiles and low-end light industrial products has gradually slowed down, and the signal of industrial structural adjustment is very clear.
Figure: my country’s export growth statistics of high value-added products from 2023 to 2026
At the same time, the global trade pattern is in a stage of continuous reconstruction. Regional multilateral trade cooperation continues to deepen. Since the implementation of the RCEP agreement, policy dividends have continued to be released, driving the average annual growth rate of regional trade in East and Southeast Asia to remain above 15%. The growth rate of my country’s exports to emerging markets such as ASEAN, the Middle East, and Latin America far exceeds that of traditional European and American markets, and the difference has reached 12 percentage points.
More and more foreign trade companies are actively adjusting their overseas strategies, vigorously exploring diversified overseas markets, reducing their dependence on orders from a single economy, and effectively hedging the operating pressure caused by shrinking demand in some developed economies. Many foreign trade companies’ orders from emerging markets have accounted for more than 50%.
Cross-border e-commerce has become a new core engine for foreign trade growth. Online B2B and B2C models have greatly shortened the intermediate links in domestic and overseas trade. Small and medium-sized foreign trade merchants can directly connect with overseas end consumers without relying on large trading companies, greatly broadening the overseas channels for small and medium-sized merchants.
At present, the scale of my country’s cross-border e-commerce import and export has exceeded 2.8 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of more than 20%. The supporting overseas warehouse system is also continuing to improve. Currently, the number of overseas warehouses deployed by enterprises across the country has exceeded 2,500, with a total area of more than 28 million square meters. It has effectively solved the industry pain points of slow cross-border logistics and difficult after-sales, and has greatly improved the comprehensive competitiveness of domestic products in overseas markets.
Picture: Operation scene in the overseas warehouse area of domestic and foreign trade companies
Of course, in the process of transformation, foreign trade companies still face external risks such as increased overseas trade barriers, frequent exchange rate fluctuations, and uncertainty in overseas geopolitical conflicts.
In response to these pain points, many foreign trade companies have figured out mature solutions: avoiding trade barriers by arranging offshore production bases in Southeast Asia, Latin America and other regions, reducing exchange losses by handling exchange rate hedging businesses such as forward foreign exchange settlement and sales, and enhancing their bargaining power by deeply cultivating segmented tracks to create specialty products.
At the policy level, measures such as optimization of export tax rebates and special cross-border financial support are also being introduced to effectively reduce the costs of going overseas for small and medium-sized foreign trade companies.
In the long run, relying on the unique and complete industrial chain advantages of my country’s manufacturing industry, continuing to build independent brands for overseas markets and improving the core technological content of products is the core path for the foreign trade industry to achieve long-term high-quality development.
In the future, as more supportive policies are implemented and innovation in foreign trade formats continues to advance, the global competitiveness of my country’s foreign trade will further improve, and its share in the global trade market will remain stable.
