Main Content and Source of Data

Data in this chapter show the summary data of China’s foreign trade, utilization of foreign capital, contracted projects and
labour cooperation with the 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, means of trade, types of taxes and so on.

The coverage of foreign trade statistics are designed according to principle on international trade by United Nations, 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 General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China through
comprehensive reporting system.

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

Customs statistics on value term imports and exports by categories are using the UN Standard International Trade
Classification (SITC). However, the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) stipulated by the Customs
Cooperation Council is 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 boundary 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 boundary 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 boundary of the Peoples 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 loans, 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 fro governmental statistical agencies,
since 1986 all data are from Ministry of Commerce (former MOFTEC).

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 and design and consultation service with foreign countries.

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 comprehensive reporting system.

IV. 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.