Southwest China’s Chongqing municipality saw its foreign trade volume grow by 10.3% year-on-year to 398.36 billion yuan (58.3 billion US dollars) in the first eight months of 2020, and the local customs authority reported last Saturday.

The growth rate is 1.8 percentage higher than recorded in the previous seven months, with its exports grew by 9.4 percent year-on-year to 252.07 billion yuan and imports up 12% to 146.29 billion yuan. In August, Chongqing's total foreign trade volume stood at 58.22 billion yuan, a 22.3% surge from a year ago, with its exports growing by 35.9% year-on-year to 39.14 billion yuan and imports up 1.5% to 19.08 billion yuan.

The increasing growth rate of the city’s foreign trade volume in this period can be attributed to the following five factors：

1. An increase in exports and imports with the top three trading partners.

From January to August, Chongqing's trade with ASEAN countries totaled at 71.4 billion yuan, a 5.7% year-on-year increase; with EU countries totaled at 67.46 billion yuan, a year-on-year 11.7% increase; and with the U.S. totaled at 62.15 billion yuan, a sharp twist from the 2% year-on-year decrease a month before to the 2.1% year-on-year increase now. Meanwhile, the city's trade with Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan remained a steady growth rate of 41.1%, 130%, and 9%, respectively. What’s more, the total foreign trade volume with Belt and Road countries also recorded an 11.2% year-on-year increase to 110.51 billion yuan.

2. An increase in exports and imports in processing and bonded logistics.

From January to August, Chongqing’s processing foreign trade totaled at 198.91 billion yuan, a 9% year-on-year increase and accounting for 49.9% of the city’s total foreign trade volume; Chongqing’s bonded logistics foreign trade totaled at 82.44 billion yuan, a 39.7% year-on-year increase and accounting for 20.7% of the city’s total foreign trade volume.

3. In increase of private sector contributions to foreign trade volume.

From January to August, Chongqing’s private sector foreign trade totaled at 140.9 billion yuan, a 24.9% year-on-year increase, accounting for 35.4% of the city’s total foreign trade, a 4.1% year-on-year increase. Foreign-funded enterprises’ trade totaled at 225.6 billion yuan, a 7% year-on-year increase, and accounting for 56.6% of the city’s total foreign exchange.

4. A dominating role of the electronic information industry in foreign trade.

From January to August, Chongqing’s exports of laptops totaled at 108.38 billion yuan, a 14.6% year-on-year increase; exports of integrated circuits totaled at 14.83 billion yuan, a 34.6% year-on-year increase; exports of cellphones totaled at 6.71 billion yuan, a 140% year-on-year increase; meanwhile, Chongqing’s imports of integrated circuits and storage devices grew by 28.4% and 4.7% respectively; imports of agricultural products, mainly fruits and meat products, totaled at 6.31 billion yuan, a 45.3% year-on-year increase.
5. A 20% increase in exports and imports in special customs supervision zones.

From January to August, the foreign trade volume in Chongqing’s special customs supervision zones totaled at 281.84 billion yuan, a 20.3% year-on-year increase, accounting for 70.8% of the city’s total foreign trade volume. The growth rate was much higher than the city’s average in the same period, which was 10.3%, and contributed to 127.9% of the city’s overall foreign trade growth.