On April 9th, the Ministry of Commerce held a special press conference for the 137th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair). When it comes to how to view the current foreign trade situation, Xiao Lu, Deputy Director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that since the beginning of this year, the risks and challenges faced by China's foreign trade development have significantly increased. However, it should also be noted that the majority of foreign trade enterprises are brave enough to explore and innovate, and various facilitation policies and measures continue to be implemented and effective. China's foreign trade resilience has not decreased, and imports and exports have achieved a stable start. Currently, the world economy is facing great uncertainty, especially in the field of trade, and the stability of the supply chain is threatened. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) believes that a broader 'trade war' will lead to an increase in trade barriers, and accordingly will lower the global economic growth rate by 0.2 percentage points to 3.1% in 2025. However, at the same time, the OECD fully recognizes the boosting effect of China's economic policies, which have raised the country's economic growth rate by 0.1 percentage points Xiao Lu said that this "one rise and one fall" reflects the international community's optimism about the Chinese economy and the increasing confidence in China's development prospects. Xiao Lu emphasized that the potential of China's super large market is constantly being released, and policies to stabilize the economy and foreign trade continue to be strengthened. The fundamentals of stable, medium, and long-term improvement have not changed, and China's foreign trade also has confidence and confidence to face various risks and challenges. This mainly comes from three aspects: having a stable "base plate". In 2024, China's import and export of goods will continuously cross two trillion yuan steps, reaching 43 trillion yuan. The international market share of exports is stable with some progress, expected to reach around 14.7%. There are nearly 700000 enterprises with import and export achievements, of which more than 80% are private enterprises. The vast number of foreign trade enterprises have tempered their resilience, enhanced their strength, and accumulated momentum through rich foreign trade practices, exploration, and hard work. This is the most solid foundation of China's foreign trade. There is ample 'new momentum'. Innovation has become a distinctive feature of China's foreign trade. Through continuous transformation and upgrading towards intelligence, digitization, and greenization, the innovative power of Chinese products has gained the favor of global consumers. From coffee machines, floor sweepers, and fabric fibers to electric vehicles, ships, airplanes, and industrial robots, it fully demonstrates its "technological style" in all aspects. The potential of new business models in China is still being continuously released, with cross-border e-commerce creating a more convenient shopping experience for global consumers and supporting it as a new driving force for international trade development, achieving rapid growth in scale. There is an important weapon of openness. China will unswervingly expand its high-level opening up to the outside world. The door to opening up will only grow wider and wider. It has become a major trading partner of more than 150 countries and regions. It has signed 23 free trade agreements with 30 countries and regions. In 2024, the proportion of imports and exports to countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" will exceed 50% for the first time. China will firmly practice true multilateralism, firmly maintain the global trade order, work together with more trading partners to achieve win-win results, and inject more stability into global trade growth. (New Society)