China's Commerce Ministry announces initiatives to stabilize foreign trade in 2025

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Wednesday announced a set of initiatives to stabilize foreign trade in 2025, focusing on digitalization, green trade, and expansion of global business platforms amid growing external risks and challenges.

At a press briefing in Beijing, MOFCOM officials outlined plans to accelerate the development of new foreign trade drivers by embracing digitalization. This includes expanding the use of electronic trade documents and encouraging digitalization of the entire trade chain, aiming to streamline processes and improve efficiency.

Green trade will also be a priority, with efforts to help foreign trade enterprises adopt sustainable, low-carbon practices. Steps will be taken to promote the construction of smart logistics platforms overseas, as well as support cross-border e-commerce trade fairs and matchmaking events in regions with suitable infrastructure, thereby creating more opportunities for businesses to showcase products and for matchmaking between supply and demand, according to the officials.

"We will continue to compile and publish the 'Country Trade Guide' and other foreign trade promotion documentations, strengthening information exchange between Chinese and international businesses. We will actively expand the global network of high-standard free trade zones, establish new trade facilitation working groups on the basis of consultation, and pragmatically address the bottlenecks and challenges in bilateral trade to create more business opportunities," said Meng Yue, director of the Foreign Trade Department at the Ministry of Commerce, at the press briefing.

In addition, China will leverage major trade platforms such as the China International Import Expo and the Canton Fair to further market opening, boost imports, and foster innovation in international trade. These efforts are designed to transform China's vast market into a big opportunity for the world, according to the officials.

The U.S. dollar strengthened in late trading on Monday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, went up 0.2 percent to 99.178 at 15:00 (1900 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1578 dollars from 1.1606 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was down to 1.3388 dollars from 1.34 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 158.33 Japanese yen, higher than 157.74 Japanese yen in the previous session. The U.S. dollar increased to 0.7799 Swiss francs from 0.777 Swiss francs, and it declined to 1.3591 Canadian dollars from 1.3596 Canadian dollars.

The U.S. dollar added to 9.21 Swedish Kronor from 9.1855 Swedish Kronor.