Against the backdrop of the overall decline in imports, China's imports from the participating countries of the second China International Import Expo (CIIE) achieved marked growth. In the first three quarters of 2019, China's imports from these countries registered a gain of 8.8 percent, totaling 3.09 trillion yuan.

A total of 64 participating countries have made their debut at the second CIIE, including 15 guest-of-honor countries from the likes of Russia and France. Customs records demonstrate that there were 94,000 Chinese enterprises importing from participating countries during the first nine months, an increase of 6.3 percent.

From January to September, China imported goods worth 2.17 trillion yuan from the participating countries in the form of general trade, a growth of 8.7 percent year on year, constituting 70 percent of China's total imports from these countries, among which, the imports via online shopping bonded trade falling under the cross-border e-commerce new business mode were 8.24 billion yuan.

Thirty one provinces in China had records of imports from participating countries, among which, Beijing's imports from went up by 12.8 percent to reach 603.18 billion yuan, with Guangdong Province and Shanghai importing products worth 398.14 and 373.29 billion yuan respectively, up three percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

In terms of merchandise categories, crude oil acts as the largest category of imported goods. China imported crude oil worth 596.15 billion yuan from the participants of the CIIE with a surge of 13.8 percent.

Imports of consumer goods such as meat, seafood and cosmetics have grown rapidly. In the first nine months, China's cumulative imports of consumer goods surged by 25.5 percent to reach 320.52 billion yuan, accounting for 10.4 percent of the total imports with a slight gain in proportion by 1.4 percentage points. 

The imports of meat, aquatic and marine products stood at 42.38 billion yuan and 41.32 billion yuan, up 58.9 percent and 66 percent respectively. Cosmetics imports were 21.12 billion yuan, up 47.1 percent, while clothing imports settled at 21.03 billion yuan, up 10.8 percent.