According to data released by Chengdu Customs District P. R. China on January 15, the total import and export value of Sichuan's goods trade in 2022 exceeded one trillion yuan for the first time, reaching 1.00767 trillion yuan, ranking eighth in China, with a year-on-year growth of 6.1%. Among them, the export value came to 621.51 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%. The import value amounted to 386.16 billion yuan, up 1.3% year on year.

Chengdu's import and export value totaled 834.64 billion yuan, accounting for 82.8% of Sichuan's total. Driven by new energy, chemical engineering and other industries, the annual import and export value of Meishan and Leshan went up to 11.92 billion yuan and 11.04 billion yuan respectively, both exceeding 10 billion yuan for the first time, bringing the number of cities in Sichuan with import and export value exceeding 10 billion yuan to seven.

More industrial clusters have emerged to play a prominent supporting role as opening-up platforms. According to customs statistics, Sichuan's comprehensive bonded zones and bonded logistics centers (type B) registered an import and export value of 590.55 billion yuan in 2022, accounting for 58.6% of Sichuan's total. Among them, Chengdu High-Tech Comprehensive Bonded Zone has led nationwide comprehensive bonded zones in terms of the total import and export value for five consecutive years.

Innovation-driven development has accelerated, and more foreign trade business formats have emerged. In 2022, four new cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones were established in Nanchong, Meishan, Yibin, and Dazhou, bringing the total number of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones in Sichuan to eight, making Sichuan rank fifth in China. The new scenario of cross-border e-commerce exhibition and sales experience, which combines "bonded warehouse and physical store", has enabled consumers to buy products from all over the world "at their doorstep". Sichuan enterprises have sped up the construction of overseas warehouses to "sell products globally". Up to now, a total of 47 enterprises and 62 overseas warehouses in Sichuan have registered with Chengdu Customs, with a total area of more than 600,000 m2. In 2022, the export value of overseas warehouses in cross-border e-commerce came to 900 million yuan, an increase of 1.6 times over the previous year.

The pro-business policy has further stimulated economic vitality and continued to boost the confidence of market entities. In 2022, the total number of enterprises with import and export performance in Sichuan increased to 7,387, an increase of 668 from the previous year. Among them, private enterprises grew the fastest and contributed the most, with import and export scale reaching a record high. The annual import and export value of private enterprises totaled 344.80 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 29.7%, 23.6 percentage points higher than the provincial growth rate, accounting for 34.2% of Sichuan's total, and contributing 137.4% to the growth of Sichuan's foreign trade.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has unleashed tremendous vitality since it came into effect a year ago. According to customs statistics, the value of imported goods under RCEP in Sichuan totaled 280 million yuan in 2022. The customs issued 2,439 RCEP certificates to 105 export enterprises, with a total value of 13.38 billion yuan. Industries such as agriculture, chemical engineering, and new energy benefited markedly from it. In particular, thanks to Sichuan's advantages in lithium mineral resources and clean energy, lithium battery-related industries have developed rapidly, gathering more than 80 upstream and midstream enterprises in the industry, including Tianqi Lithium Corporation and Yibin Tianyi Lithium Industry Co., Ltd. Data show that in 2022, Sichuan ranked first in China in terms of the import of lithium ore, while its exports of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide ranked first and second respectively.