Zhongshan Foreign Trade Turns to EU Market

In the face of internal and diplomatic difficulties in the foreign trade environment, Zhongshan’s foreign trade has shown signs of shifting to the EU market. The reporter learned from Zhongshan Customs yesterday that in the first half of this year, Zhongshan’s trade with its trading partners such as Hong Kong and the United States slowed or even declined, but it maintained a rapid growth of EU trade, reaching 17.6%. This shows that Zhongshan has Many foreign trade companies are stepping up efforts to expand the EU market.

According to the data from Zhongshan Customs, the city's foreign trade maintained a steady growth in the first half of the year, with a total import value of 12.54 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 5.2% over the same period of last year, of which exports were 8.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 7.3%; imports were 3.58 billion U.S. dollars, up 0.2%. A surplus of 5.38 billion U.S. dollars. Among them, Hong Kong remains the largest foreign trade partner in Zhongshan City, with the United States ranking second and the European Union the third largest. In the first half of the year, the volume of foreign trade between Zhongshan and Hong Kong was 2.73 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 2.1%; the volume of foreign trade with the United States was 2.18 billion U.S. dollars, down 0.2%; the volume of foreign trade with the EU was 1.91 billion U.S. dollars, up 17.6%; Japan's foreign trade volume was 980 million U.S. dollars, down by 8%; the fifth place was the Taiwan region, with its foreign trade totaling 810 million U.S. dollars, down by 0.4%. Foreign trade between Zhongshan and the above five countries and regions accounted for the city’s foreign trade. 68.7% of the total.

The reporter learned that in the first half of this year, exports of electromechanical products still dominated, and some traditional merchandise exports showed good growth. Among them, exports of clothing and accessories totaled 970 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 8.2%; footwear exports reached 480 million U.S. dollars, up 24.6%; lamps, lighting devices and similar goods exported 390 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 3%. Analysts from related customs analyzed that due to factors such as the appreciation of the renminbi, the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States, the cancellation of the textile quota system in the European Union, and the robust demand for the economic operation of the European Union, many companies have chosen to actively explore the EU market, which has stimulated rapid growth of EU trade. For example, the export of clothing to Europe even exceeds that of the United States, which was ranked second largest trading partner in the past. However, Zhongshan’s current exports to the European Union are still dominated by traditional commodities. At present, the EU has set different thresholds for imported products, and will be more and more stringent. Enterprises should quickly familiarize themselves with and adapt to various EU technical and environmental protection requirements, increase the added value and competitiveness of their products, and do not free to meet the needs of merchants. Harsh requirements, blindly reduce the unit price of products; at the same time, customs officials suggested that companies should actively explore other emerging markets, to avoid relying solely on the EU market risk.