Trade index for CIIE shows increase

An import trade index of guest countries of honor at the second China International Import Expo was released on Friday. It came in a report compiled by the global trade monitoring and analysis center of the General Administration of Customs and the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics.

It was the first time China had released such an index, which "can objectively and systematically reflect the development and changes of the import trade between China and the guest countries of honor, the competitiveness of these countries' commodities in the Chinese market and the trade complementarity.”

According to the customs, "it will serve as a reference for decision-making and provide services to support the import expo, help promote imports and bolster the operation of foreign enterprises in China.”

The index for the second expo was 60.97, up 1.01 percent from last year’s 60.36, which "indicated the more active import trade between China and the guest countries of honor at the second CIIE as well as the progress in overall trade development." 

These countries' products have further enriched China's import market, while China's imports also have to some extent promoted the countries' economic growth, the customs said. 

According to the latest official figures, in the first three quarters of this year, China's total imports from the 15 guest countries of honor amounted to 1.45 trillion yuan (US$210 billion), an increase of 9.5 percent, 0.7 percentage points faster than the overall import growth of countries participating in the CIIE. It accounts for 46.8 percent of China's total import value in the period, up 0.3 percentage points year on year.

Among the commodities that China has imported from the 15 countries, animal products, artworks, food and beverage, transportation equipment, mineral products have seen rapid growth. 

France, Italy and the Czech Republic rank high in the trade index for transportation equipment, while Russia, India, Italy and France are among the top in art trade.