Taizhou's imports and exports decreased 2.1 percent year-on-year to 170.01 billion yuan ($25.3 billion) in 2019, local authorities said. 

Imports stood at 13.49 billion yuan over the period, a drop of 34.3 percent, while exports registered an increase of 2.2 percent to 156.52 billion yuan, as per statistics recently released by Taizhou Customs.

The city's trade with the EU and emerging markets all posted growth. 

Last year, Taizhou's exports to the EU, Latin America, ASEAN and Africa stood at 41.93 billion yuan, 14.6 billion yuan, 13.04 billion yuan and 10.6 billion yuan respectively, up 4.5 percent, 5.9 percent, 13.4 percent and 8.7 percent respectively. 

The city's exports to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative soared 10 percent to 51.97 billion yuan, 7.8 percentage points faster than city's average over the same period.

A total of 6,592 companies in Taizhou were importing and exporting products in 2019, an increase of eight percent over the previous year.

Among the companies, 6,232 are export enterprises, up 7.4 percent. 

Private enterprises made up the majority of the city's foreign trade volume over the 12-month period. 

Exports by private enterprises rose 2.9 percent to 141.1 billion yuan, accounting for 90.2 percent of the city's total. 

Notably, a total of 534 used cars with a combined value of 22.236 million yuan were exported from Taizhou last year after it was listed among the first batch of cities/provinces in China to participate in the used car export pilot program in May.

The majority of used cars from the city were exported to regions such as Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa.

According to Wang Gongbiao, an official from Taizhou Customs, the city ranked second among the 10 cities/provinces involved in the program, which included Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jining, Guangdong, Chengdu, Xi'an, Qingdao and Xiamen.

Exports from Taizhou primarily consist of machinery and labor-intensive products such as shoes and plastic products. 

The city exported 86.76 billion yuan worth of machinery over the year, accounting for 55.4 percent of the total, while the number for labor-intensive products climbed 5.3 percent to 33.33 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, Taizhou's imports mainly included resources such as scrap metal, crude plastics and copper.

Over the period, the city saw a steep increase in the amount of imported goods such as auto parts, pumps and textile machinery.

Li Tietie, an official of statistics and analysis at Taizhou Customs, said the city should construct a comprehensive service platform for foreign trade and focus on developing new forms of trade such as cross-border e-commerce.