In the first four months of 2026, China’s foreign trade showed strong growth, with total import and export value increasing by 14.9% year-on-year, far outperforming the global average growth rate of 1.9%.
Behind this achievement is China’s strong support for stabilizing foreign trade.
From the perspective of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises, short-term relief policies have achieved direct results.
The accuracy of this round of policies has been significantly improved. In the first quarter of 2026, the China Development Bank issued 28.54 billion yuan in special on-loans to stabilize foreign trade to support more than 6,500 small and micro enterprises in outdoor trade. The weighted average interest rate was lower than the national inclusive small and micro loan interest rate in the same period.
Zhejiang Province has implemented full subsidies for export credit insurance premiums for small and micro foreign trade enterprises with an export volume of less than 10 million US dollars. As of April 2026, Jindong District has provided 162 million yuan of risk protection for 218 enterprises, and enterprises can cover the risk of export bad debts at zero cost.
In addition, the facilitation upgrade of customs clearance has also directly reduced corporate costs. The “cross-border one lock” model of Fujian, Guangdong and Hong Kong has achieved “one order and two declarations”, directly shortening the declaration time of enterprises by more than 50%, and reducing logistics costs by about 10%.
However, many small and micro foreign trade companies have reported that the coverage of small-currency exchange rate hedging products for emerging markets such as ASEAN and Latin America is insufficient. Country risk warning services for some long-tail niche markets have not been extended to county areas, and there are blockages in the transmission of policy dividends.
From the perspective of global market layout, the buffer zone for multiple hedging has taken shape.
In the past, companies were worried about the impact of declining exports to the European and American markets on growth, but now data shows that in the first four months of 2026, my country’s total imports and exports to countries co-building the “Belt and Road” were 8.28 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.5%, accounting for 51% of the total foreign trade value in the same period. ASEAN surpassed the EU to become my country’s largest trading partner, and trade growth rates with Tajikistan, Brazil and other countries reached 17.1% and 55.7% respectively.
As an important logistics support for stabilizing foreign trade, supporting policies for China-Europe freight trains have reduced the operating costs of enterprises by more than 40% compared with the initial stage of the operation. In the first four months of 2026, the six major ports operated an average of 50.4 trains per day, a year-on-year increase of 21%, and the cumulative number of trains opened exceeded 130,000.
Although some people believe that more than 50% dependence on the “Belt and Road” market will bring geopolitical risks, actual data shows that in the first four months, the export of advantageous new energy products such as electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and wind turbines increased by 68.1%, 43.2%, and 40.7% respectively. Orders are scattered in nearly 100 countries around the world, and the diversified layout has built a more stable growth structure.
From the perspective of long-term institutional opening up, the cultivation of competitiveness in new tracks is accelerating.
This round of foreign trade stabilization policies is different from the past. It proactively reduces export tax rebates in globally competitive categories such as photovoltaics and batteries, and invests policy resources in incremental areas of institutional openness.
The 17 national service trade innovation demonstration zones launched in May 2026 will focus on cultivating new export growth points such as biomedical research and development, international shipping, and cross-border digital services. It is planned to build 35 demonstration zones across the country by 2035, docking with international high-standard economic and trade rules such as CPTPP, and promoting the liberalization and facilitation of service trade to significantly improve the level.
At the same time, the pilot program for changing the bonded maintenance business management in the Comprehensive Bonded Zone from a positive list to a negative list is expected to be replicated and promoted nationwide in 2026 to promote the transformation of manufacturing companies into a high value-added model.
However, some people point out that the pace of implementation of rules is slower than expected, and the dividends from the pilot opening are concentrated in leading service companies in first-tier cities. Small and medium-sized cross-border service providers and comprehensive foreign trade service companies will not be able to enjoy the benefits in the short term, and the inclusiveness of institutional innovation needs to be improved.
Taken together, this round of policies to stabilize the foreign trade portfolio has achieved the design goals of “not spending money to support the bottom line in the short term, not being partial to market expansion in the medium term, and not lacking in long-term planning.”
The follow-up challenge is to quickly replicate the effective measures in the pilot to the whole country, convert the advantages of the new rules into overseas orders, hedge against the pressure of slowing global trade growth, and achieve the development goal of stable and progressive foreign trade throughout the year.
