Foreign trade makes 'notable progress in stabilizing'

A vessel departed from a container terminal at Nansha Port in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and headed for Brazil on Sept 4. It was loaded with Chinese goods, including automobiles, engineering machinery and home appliances. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China has made notable progress in stabilizing and enhancing the structure of its foreign trade, paving the way for potential positive growth throughout the entire year, said a senior government official on Wednesday.

Speaking at an economic forum held by the Beijing-based China Center for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing, Tang Wenhong, assistant minister of commerce, said China will align its trade and economic policies with high-standard international trade and economic rules, speed up the reform of institutional opening-up and deepen the implementation of its free trade zone strategy.

He said that the government will introduce a number of innovative and comprehensive measures in areas such as trade, investment, finance and other sectors, to further advance its opening-up process.

China's foreign trade amounted to 37.96 trillion yuan ($5.28 trillion) from January to November 2023, remaining consistent with the corresponding period from the previous year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.