Interpretation of Q1 2026 Foreign Trade Data: A Good Start with Prominent Resilience

On April 14, the State Council Information Office held a press conference where the General Administration of Customs released China's foreign trade import and export data for the first quarter of 2026. The data shows that in the first quarter of this year, China's total foreign trade in goods reached 11.84 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15%. Foreign trade got off to a strong and good start, showing strong resilience and vitality.

According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, in the first quarter, China's exports reached 6.85 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.2%; imports reached 4.99 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.9%; and the trade surplus was 1.86 trillion yuan, a year-on-year expansion of 42.3%. This growth rate is not only higher than the level of last year but also significantly better than market expectations.

From the perspective of trade entities, private enterprises performed particularly outstandingly. In the first quarter, the import and export volume of private enterprises reached 8.32 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.1%, accounting for 70.3% of the total import and export value, an increase of 3 percentage points compared with the same period last year. Private enterprises have become the main force and important engine of China's foreign trade growth.

From the perspective of trade partners, China's import and export with countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) grew rapidly. In the first quarter, the import and export volume with BRI countries reached 4.32 trillion yuan, an increase of 22.6%, 7.6 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate. This shows that China's economic and trade cooperation with BRI countries is continuously deepening, and market potential is continuously being released.

From the perspective of product structure, exports of mechanical and electrical products continued to maintain rapid growth. In the first quarter, exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 4.12 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.5%, accounting for 60.1% of the total export value. Among them, exports of the "new three" (new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, photovoltaic products) increased by 78.3%, 35.6% and 29.8% respectively, becoming new drivers of export growth.

The spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs stated that the "good start" achieved in foreign trade in the first quarter has laid a solid foundation for the stable growth of foreign trade throughout the year. At the same time, it should be noted that the current international situation is still complex and severe, the global economic recovery is weak, and foreign trade development still faces many challenges.

In the following content, we will conduct an in-depth analysis of the structural changes behind the first quarter foreign trade data, and combine the latest cross-border trade facilitation policies to explore the new opportunities and challenges faced by foreign trade enterprises.