Tianjin sees robust growth of foreign trade in past two decades

Statistics from Tianjin's customs authorities show that the city's imports and exports grew from 150.37 billion yuan ($ 23.62 billion) in 2001 to 736.79 billion yuan in 2020, equivalent to a growth of 390 percent.

Tianjin has witnessed stable growth of its foreign trade since China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. The volume of its imports and exports surpassed 300 billion yuan in 2004 and 700 billion yuan in 2012 respectively.

Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the city still sustained strong growth momentum of its imports and exports in 2020. Figures shows that the city's foreign trade expanded 15.4 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of this year to 776.22 billion yuan, marking an 18.5-percent increase compared with the amount registered during the same period in 2019.

Tianjin has made positive progress in the optimization of the structure of its foreign trade over the past two decades. For instance, the share of its general trade climbed from 31.3 percent in 2001 to 57.1 percent in 2020.

The volume of its imports and exports associated with general trade in Tianjin increased 14.5 percent year-on-year between January and November of this year to 441.46 billion yuan, representing the highest growth over the past 20 years.

The percentage of imports and exports made by the private sector in Tianjin's foreign trade grew from only 1.9 percent in 2001 to 36.7 percent in 2020. Exports of machinery and electronic products in Tianjin logged an annual growth of 9.6 percent during the same period. The share of machinery and electronic product exports in the city's foreign trade rose from 48.8 percent in 2001 to 66 percent in 2020.

Meanwhile, the Binhai New Area has witnessed robust growth of its foreign trade over the past two decades. Its imports and exports expanded 12.3 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of this year to 550.25 billion yuan, accounting for 70.9 percent of the total amount of foreign trade in Tianjin.

Since 2009, Tianjin has invested huge efforts to promote the development of newly emerging trade forms such as cross-border e-commerce, financing and leasing, bonded maintenance and bonded R&D.

Tianjin has built trade relations with 219 countries and regions over the past two decades. Local firms have further expanded their presence in ASEAN countries, Africa, Latin America, Russia, India and other emerging markets in the world during the past few years.

The foreign trade of Tianjin with Belt and Road initiative (BRI) countries reached 181.6 billion yuan in 2020. In addition, its imports and exports with BRI countries reached 188.29 billion yuan between January and November of this year, accounting for 24.3 percent of its total foreign trade.

Moreover, Tianjin has imported a rising number of foreign commodities from other countries and regions in the past two decades in a drive to further open its market. Figures show that the volume of its imports registered an annual growth of 9.9 percent from 71.82 billion yuan in 2001 to 429.36 billion yuan in 2020.

Consumer products represented about 19.4 percent of Tianjin's imports in 2020, becoming the largest single category in the list of imported commodities and registering an annual growth of 14.5 percent.

Over the past two decades, Tianjin has granted full support to the development of China-Europe freight-train services, introduced 123 creative measures to streamline the supervisory and services mechanisms of local customs authorities, piloted a scheme for nationally unified customs clearance, shortened the time of necessary customs clearance and improved the business environment at local ports.

（Source：exploringtianjin.com）