Foreign trade volume rises 15.6%: MOFCOM

China’s foreign trade has shown growth momentum this year as the total trade volume in the first 11 months of 2018 has already exceeded the reading last year, but the trend was not in large part fueled by a rush by traders to ship orders before US tariffs took effect, an official from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said Thursday.

“There may have been moves to rush to fill orders in export markets which are affected by protectionism and unilateralism, but it is not the determining factor behind China’s fast-growing trade volume,” MOFCOM spokesperson Gao Feng, said at a press briefing in Beijing on Thursday.

In the first 11 months, China’s foreign trade volume rose by 15.6 percent to 25.14 trillion yuan, customs data shows.

Gao said that the rebound in global market demands, Chinese government policy boost, a steadily growing domestic economy which drives up import demand, as well as an innovative shift in exports are behind China’s foreign trade boom.

There is also “strong support” for China’s foreign trade growth next year despite rising protectionism and other global uncertainties, according to Gao.

“The trend of economic globalization is not in reverse, and the demand from major global markets is still growing,” Gao noted.