9th CIIE opens: Ding says overall tariff 7.3%, China does not seek surplus; Q1–Q3 imports +22.3%; 4,142 overseas exhibitors. | China Day chinaday.news
The ninth China International Import Expo (CIIE) and Hongqiao International Economic Forum opened in Shanghai on 5 November. A Xinhua flash said the edition drew 162 countries, regions and international organizations and 4,142 overseas exhibitors, with total area topping 440,000 sq m for the first time; enterprise-exhibit space first exceeded 370,000 sq m, Fortune Global 500 and industry leaders first topped 300, and more than 480 global/Asia/China debut exhibits set a record. Politburo Standing Committee member and Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang attended and delivered the keynote. TVB published the full speech; Commercial Radio Hong Kong and RTHK carried key points: China's overall tariff level has fallen to 7.3%, with zero tariffs for all diplomatic LDCs and African partners; manufacturing foreign-investment access restrictions have been fully lifted; goods imports have ranked second globally for 17 years and China is a top export destination for nearly 80 countries; Q1–Q3 imports rose 22.3%, about 6 percentage points faster than exports. Ding said China never deliberately seeks a trade surplus; the current-account surplus-to-GDP ratio fell from 9.9% in 2007 to 3.7% in 2025, within an internationally recognized reasonable range, and China will keep importing more quality goods and services. He set out four points—sharing the large market, deepening investment cooperation, innovation empowerment, and mutual trust—to promote positive, dynamic and upward trade balance, and said that by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period annual retail sales of consumer goods may reach about 60 trillion yuan and the services sector about 100 trillion yuan. Reuters via Devdiscourse and others confirmed the opening. Hard speech points were not yet complete at the 10:00 patrol, so this slot logs them.
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