Brief Introduction

Data in this chapter provide summary data of China’s foreign trade, utilization of foreign capital, overseas direct investment, contracted projects and labour cooperation with foreign countries or territories over the years, focusing on the recent situation of foreign trade and economic cooperation.

I. Foreign Trade

Data on foreign trade include: varieties of imports and exports, amount (weight), value, countries (regions), imports and exports corporations, destination within territory, origin of goods within territory, mode of trade, types of tariffs and so on.

The scope of foreign trade statistics are designed according to United Nations’ principles on international trade statistics, that is: all imports or exports that will lead to stock changes of material resources with the territory of People’s Republic of China; excluding goods by escape clause.

Sources of data on foreign trade are from the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China through a comprehensive reporting system.

Special notice: Data in the years prior to 1980 were statistical data of foreign trade and came from the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (currently Ministry of Commerce). Since 1980, the data have been compiled from the statistical data of customs on imports and exports and come from the General Administration of Customs.

Customs statistics in value terms for both imports and exports are compiled according to the classifications of UN Standard International Trade Classification (SITC). However, the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) stipulated by the Customs Cooperation Council is also used in the classification of the import and export commodities.

In the table on China’s total imports and exports with related countries and regions, the export commodities are calculated at the Customs of the countries (regions) of destination and the import commodities are calculated at the Customs of the countries (regions) of origin. The total values of the import and export commodities by region are calculated respectively at the provinces where the import or export corporations are situated and at the provinces of destination or provinces of origin within the border of the People’s Republic of China. The province where the import or export corporations are situated refers to the province where the import or export corporations have applied to and have been registered at the Customs. The province of origin within the border of the Peoples Republic of China refers to the province where the export commodities are produced or originally delivered. The province of destination within the border of the People’s Republic of China refers to the province where the import commodities are consumed, used or transported to the destination.

II. Statistics on Utilization of Foreign Capitals

Utilization of foreign capitals includes: foreign direct investments and other foreign investments, and the basic condition of registration of foreign funded enterprises.

The statistics cover all the units and departments which have utilized foreign capital and all the Sino-foreign joint ventures, Sino-foreign cooperative enterprises, ventures exclusively with foreign investment, foreign-funded stock companies, Sino-foreign cooperative development projects and other corporate enterprises (including the enterprises funded by the entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) with independent accounting system which have been approved by the Chinese government to set up in the boundary of the People’s Republic of China.

Data on utilization of foreign capitals are from Ministry of Commerce, of which, data on basic condition of registration of foreign funded enterprises are from State Administration for Industry and Commerce through comprehensive reporting system.

Special notice: data on utilization of foreign capitals before 1985 were survey results from governmental statistical agencies, since 1986 all data are from Ministry of Commerce (formerly MOFTEC). Data on utilization of foreign capitals since 2000 do not include foreign loans.

III. Foreign Economic Cooperation

Data on foreign economic cooperation include: contracted projects, labour services cooperation, design and consultation services, contracted volume, complete business turnover, business turnover by countries (regions) and so on.

The statistics cover contracted projects, labour services cooperation with foreign countries (regions).

The statistical unit in the scheme is the corporate enterprise engaged in contracted projects and labour services cooperation with foreign countries and has been approved by the department of commerce at various levels.

Data on foreign economic cooperation are from Ministry of Commerce through a comprehensive reporting system.

IV. Overseas Direct Investment

Contents of statistics on overseas direct investment include basic situation of domestic investors and overseas enterprises they invest in, investment, earnings and their distribution between domestic and overseas invested enterprises, import and export of commodities through overseas enterprises, approval of overseas enterprises.

The statistics cover overseas corporate and non-corporate enterprises of various forms established by domestic investors through their investment operation.

Data on foreign economic cooperation are from Ministry of Commerce through a comprehensive reporting system.

V. Others

The average exchange rates of RMB yuan to US dollar, Japanese yen and Hong Kong dollar over the years come from the State Administration of Exchange Control. The annual average exchange rate is calculated as the weighted mean of the daily exchange rates provided by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in the year.