Frictions drive push for high-quality trade

Editor's Note: At a recent news conference, a top official from the Ministry of Commerce said China needs to strengthen the overall coordination among various departments to promote high-quality trade development. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

China is now faced with difficulties and challenges in the development of its foreign trade, and the situation may become more severe next year. The country needs to increase its confidence and turn external pressure into a powerful driving force for deepening reform and opening-up.

High-quality trade is an important part of high-quality economic development. After the launch of the reform and opening-up policy 40 years ago, China became the largest exporter of goods in 2009, the largest trader of goods in 2013 and registered a total trade volume of $4.62 trillion in 2018.

The leapfrog development of foreign trade has made positive contributions to China's economic and social development, and played an important role in promoting economic development worldwide.

However, compared with some other countries, China's foreign trade still lags behind in terms of its industrial foundation and innovation, and the capacity for international economic and trade rules-making, and its supporting role for high-quality economic development is yet to be strengthened. In recent years, China's manufacturing industry has achieved a certain degree of technological transformation and upgrading, and the proportion of technologically sophisticated products in exports has been increasing and its status in the global value chain has been gradually rising.

However, the competitiveness of a considerable portion of China's export products is still low in terms of technology and easy to be substituted. To promote the high-quality development of foreign trade, the country needs to improve the competitiveness and irreplaceability of its products and industries in the international market and division of labor, and seize the opportunities created by the restructuring of the global value chain and the reshaping of industrial division of labor to promote Chinese industries to move up the value chain.

At present, destabilizing factors and uncertainties in the world economy are on the rise, and risks and challenges at home and abroad are increasing, putting downward pressure on China's economy. This highlights the need for China to accelerate the cultivation of new competitive advantages in foreign trade.