On January 22nd, our journalist learned from Yichang Customs that the total import and export value of our city reached 1.57 billion yuan with an increase of 18.2%, achieving the first positive growth since the first quarter. To be specific, export value was 1.37 billion yuan with an increase by 21.2% and import value 0.2 billion yuan with an increase by 0.9%.

　　 The total import and export value of Hubei province was 112.23 billion yuan in the first five months, while Yichang City’s reached 6.24 billion yuan accounting for 5.6% of the total, among which the export value of our city was 5.36 billion yuan and import value 0.89 billion yuan with trade surplus 4.47 billion yuan and narrowed by 17.4%. So the foreign trade structure optimized continuously. Though the foreign trade situation was basically stable, the county's foreign trade development was uneven in that only three places realized positive growth including Yidu, Zigui and Changyang.

　　 The general trade import and export value of our city was 4.85 billion yuan in the first five months occupied by 77.7% of the total over the same period. During the increase, processing trade saw an apparent growth that the export value was 0.97 billion yuan with an increase by 70.3%, import value was 0.36 billion yuan with an increase by 39.4% and total import and export value increased by 60.6%. The total import and export value of our state-owned business reached 2.23 billion yuan with an increase by 19.8% taking up 35.7% of the total import and export value of our city over the same period. At the meantime, the total value of Sino - foreign joint ventures increased significantly which made a breakthrough of 0.72 billion yuan with an increase by 97.8% and the total import and export value foreign-owned companies reached 0.43 billion yuan with an increase by 0.5%.

　　 ASEAN has become our city's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade value of 1.14 billion yuan, accounting for 18.3% of the city's total foreign trade. The bilateral trade of counties along the “Belt and Road” is in growth, among which the bilateral trade volume with Thailand was increased by 32.2%; Vietnam by 32.1%; Pakistan by 39.5%; and UAE by 8.9%. Meanwhile, the total bilateral trade value of the United States, Japan and Korea were increased by 27.9%, 16.3% and 18.4% respectively.

　　 Some of the fertilizer export tariff cancellation policies were introduced in 2017, which directly benefited the city's fertilizer production enterprises, thus the city's fertilizer exports in first five months reached 1.18 billion yuan, with an increase of 65.7%. High value-added products exports was in steady growth, exporting high-tech products of 680 million yuan, increased by 71.5%; pharmaceuticals exports of 480 million yuan, increased by 8.1%. In terms of the specific commodity categories, some high-tech products exports still maintain rapid growth, such as 180 million yuan of liquid crystal display color analog TV receiver exports, with an increase of 3.5 times; 10.567 million yuan of Tablet PC exports, with an increase of 130 times; 5.887 million yuan of amino acid exports, with an increase of 21.9%.

　　 Besides, the export value of labor - intensive industry in our city reached 0.31 billion yuan with a decrease by 38.1%. In the traditional competitive industries, the export value of textile industry reached 0.24 billion yuan with an increase by 82.4%. As for the traditional agricultural products, the export value of konjac gum reached 35.54 million yuan, and salt-soiled pig casing and tomato achieved separately, 29.59 million yuan and 14.09 million yuan differently increased by 3 times and 5.9 times, and export of oranges gets to 4.86 million yuan.(Reporter: Yang Jing; Correspondent: Liu Lingqiao)