China's imports and exports to ASEAN increased by 9.4% in the first three quarters of 2024

According to data recently released by the General Administration of Customs of China, in the first three quarters of this year, China's imports and exports to ASEAN amounted to 5.09 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.4%, of which exports amounted to 3.02 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.3%; imports amounted to 2.07 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.4%.

Wang Lingjun, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, said that the continued positive development of trade between China and ASEAN is mainly due to the following aspects:

First, the large markets of both sides provide strong support for the development of bilateral trade. China and ASEAN continue to deepen their pragmatic cooperation, and have been each other's largest trading partners for four consecutive years. In the future, the signing and implementation of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 upgrade agreement will add stronger impetus to the joint construction of a super-large-scale market by both sides.

Secondly, multi-dimensional connectivity promotes more convenient and efficient trade exchanges. The land ports are busy. In the first three quarters, the import and export through the Friendship Pass, the largest land port between China and Vietnam, reached 336.34 billion yuan, an increase of 15.6%. With the comprehensive promotion of the construction of China-Vietnam smart ports, more digital and intelligent technical equipment will press the "accelerator" for bilateral trade; the railway channel continues to exert its strength, and the import and export of goods through the China-Laos Railway reached 3.766 million tons, an increase of 15%, and the import and export value increased by 50.7%. The water routes are becoming more and more dense, and the routes from Beibu Gulf Port to ASEAN countries have increased to 35. The trade volume with ASEAN through Beibu Gulf Port has increased by 12.8%.

In addition, the industrial chain cooperation continues to deepen, and the import and export of intermediate products has achieved rapid growth. China and ASEAN countries have close cooperation in the fields of electronic information, automobile manufacturing, textiles and clothing, and the scale of import and export of intermediate products has continued to expand. In the first three quarters, China's import and export of intermediate products to ASEAN reached 3.23 trillion yuan, an increase of 9%.

Finally, the advantages of people's livelihood consumption are complementary, and the two-way choice of characteristic agricultural products is more extensive. In the first three quarters, China imported 184.83 billion yuan of agricultural products from ASEAN, and ASEAN became China's second largest source of agricultural product imports. This year's newly added access to Malaysian fresh durian, Brunei aquatic products, Vietnamese coconuts, etc., have also further enriched the country's domestic consumption choices.

At the same time, ASEAN is the largest export market for Chinese agricultural products. Chinese fruits such as citrus and pears, and vegetables such as garlic and onions are very popular in the ASEAN market. In the first three quarters, China's exports of dried and fresh fruits and vegetables to ASEAN increased by 18.4% and 15.5% respectively.