Taizhou city's foreign trade sets record in 2022

Business is booming: Taizhou's foreign trade is on a roll and prospects bright. [Photo provided etaizhou.gov.cn]

Imports and exports by Taizhou city – located in East China's Jiangsu province – reached a record 130.73 billion yuan ($19.35 billion) in 2022, up 8.2 percent year-on-year, which was 3.4 percentage points high than the province.

Last year it continued to optimize its trade structure and the proportion of general trade increased.

Annual general trade imports and exports came in at 87.54 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 17.6 percent. That accounted for 67 percent of  total foreign trade, which was 5.4 percentage points higher than the previous year.

In the wake of the rolling out of effective policies, the vitality of the city's foreign trade went from strength to strength. There were 2,433 enterprises with actual imports and exports, an increase of 29 over the previous year. Of that, imports and exports by private enterprises reached 60.6 billion yuan, up 14 percent year-on-year and accounting for 46.4 percent of the city's total value of foreign trade.

Also playing a part was the onset of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP trade agreement. This massive trade accord – involving China and a raft of Asia-Pacific rim nations – took effect on Jan 1, 2022 and foreign firms in Taizhou actively exploited the positive boost from reduced tariffs to explore emerging markets.

In 2022, Taizhou's imports and exports to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 35.36 billion yuan, up 8.2 percent year-on-year. Imports and exports to RCEP member countries reached 40.73 billion yuan last year.

In addition, the EU, US and ASEAN were the top three trading partners of the city - with imports and exports of 21.15 billion yuan, 21.13 billion yuan and 19.82 billion yuan, respectively.

That performance represented respective year-on-year growth of 21.2 percent, 26.8 percent and 12.3 percent.