A State Council Information Office press briefing on Thursday presented China's import and export performance for the first three quarters of 2026.
Trade between China and countries jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has deepened steadily in recent years. In the first three quarters, imports and exports with BRI partner countries reached 20.37 trillion yuan, up 17.1%, with exports up 16.6% and imports up 17.9%. Three highlights stand out:
First, trade partners are achieving success together. With high-quality BRI cooperation advancing, two-way trade is increasingly mutually beneficial. In the first three quarters, China's trade grew with nearly 80% of BRI partner countries, which now account for 51% of China's total foreign trade value, contributing 47.1% of trade growth over the period. Latest international data show that in the first seven months, China was a top-three trading partner for 134 BRI countries and the largest trading partner for 74 of them.
Second, cross-border logistics is becoming multi-dimensional. Waterway trade with partner countries reached 12.99 trillion yuan, up 7.1%; road and rail transport rose 34.1% and 16.4% respectively, and air transport surged 60.1%, leading all major modes. China Customs has fully supported the development of the Air Silk Road, expanding multimodal services such as air-to-air transfer and air-rail intermodal transport, and promoting an 'airside direct' model to cut pickup, unloading and security steps and further improve cross-border air freight efficiency.
Third, cooperation space keeps expanding. On the export side, China is advancing both major landmark projects and 'small and beautiful' livelihood projects; contracted engineering exports to partner countries approached 100 billion yuan in the first three quarters, supporting major infrastructure construction. Exports of surgical robots to partner countries grew 2.9 times, helping improve their healthcare. On the import side, China Customs has successively granted regional integrated market access for African countries' dried chilies, cashews, coffee beans and wild aquatic products. Agricultural imports from Egypt, Senegal and Kenya all maintained double-digit growth. Last month, customs also approved access for Tajik plums and apricots, Turkish bay leaves and South African cherries, and more quality products from partner countries will enter the Chinese market, continuously expanding mutually beneficial cooperation.
