Exports up, imports down in medical products

Last year witnessed considerable growth in both the exported value and amount of medical products from China thanks to the country's supply-side reform. At the same time total import value decreased, resulting in $13.9 billion in medical product trade surplus according to a report released by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicine and Health Products on Tuesday.

Exports increased 5.96 percent year on year to $64.4 billion, while imports decreased to $50.4 billion, a 9.75 percent drop year on year, the report alleged, citing statistics from China's customs authorities.

The decrease in import value was mostly because of the decline in the average price of imported medical products, due to intensified competition among pharmaceutical companies caused by drug group buying trials, generic drug evaluations and other measures to increase medicine accessibility, despite the increase in imports.

China exported more traditional Chinese medicine products in 2018, up 7.39 percent year-on-year to $3.9 billion, while the export structure of Western medicine products are optimizing, as exported final drugs grew 18.6 percent in value to $4.1 billion, according to the report.