In recent years, China has gradually become an important hub for global intermediate goods trade. According to the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database, China's proportion of intermediate goods trade in the world has jumped from 3.3% in 1992 to 12.17% in 2021, ranking first in the world.

     The 2023 Central Economic Work Conference proposed to accelerate the cultivation of new momentum in foreign trade, consolidate the basic foundation of foreign trade and foreign investment, and expand intermediate goods trade in expanding high-level opening up to the outside world.

     Why should we actively expand intermediate goods trade in the current situation and how should we make efforts to expand intermediate goods trade in the next step? In response, a reporter from China Trade Daily interviewed multiple industry experts.

     According to the United Nations Broad Economic Catalog (BEC) classification system, goods are divided into three categories based on their production process or usage principles, namely primary products, intermediate products, and final products. Intermediate goods trade refers to the trade activity in which raw materials, components, or semi-finished products are imported from one country or region to another during the production process, then processed, assembled, or synthesized, and finally exported to a third country or region.

     "Intermediate goods trade can reflect the degree of division of labor and cooperation between economies in the production and value chains. China's intermediate goods trade has ranked first in the world, indicating China's important position in global division of labor." Zhang Xiaotao, Dean of the School of International Economics and Trade at Central University of Finance and Economics, said that currently, various short-term problems and long-term factors in the world economy are intertwined and superimposed, Expanding the trade of intermediate goods is an important measure for China to further expand its high-level opening-up to the outside world, and it is also a manifestation of its unwavering commitment to promoting economic globalization. By expanding the trade of intermediate goods, China provides impetus for the recovery of the world economy.

     According to Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, the development of China's intermediate goods trade is the result of the combined effect of supply and demand. In the process of continuous adjustment and upgrading of global industries, sufficient intermediate goods are needed to meet the needs of their industrial and supply chains, and China's own industrial chain is also constantly developing and improving. At the same time, China is the world's largest manufacturing country with the most complete industrial system in the world, which provides strong manufacturing capabilities for intermediate product production. The mutual synergy between supply and demand has continuously elevated China's position in global intermediate goods trade, and the intermediate goods provided by China have become an important support for the development and upgrading of industrial and supply chains in various countries.