A spokesman of MOFCOM holds a regular press conference in September. (Photo: VCG)

The ongoing trade friction between China and the US has a limited impact on China's foreign trade so far, which maintained sound, stable growth in the first three quarters of the year, an official report said on Monday.
"So far the impact of China-US trade friction on China's foreign trade is limited," said the report on China's foreign trade, which was released by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
The report said that in the first three quarters of 2018, China's foreign trade maintained a stable and positive trend, with persistent structure optimization, accelerated shift of the driving forces and improved quality and efficiency.
"Global markets remained relatively stable and domestic import demand steadily grew. China's foreign trade has the basic condition for maintaining stable growth," the report said.
However, there are some negative factors that will pose challenges to China's foreign trade going forward, it added.
Trade data for the last quarter of 2018 could be "negatively impacted" by the high base number in the fourth quarter of 2017, the report said, in an apparent suggestion that the growth rate for export and import for the last quarter could be much lower.
China's foreign trade will also face even more challenging and complex environment in 2019, as risks for a slower global economy have intensified and protectionism threatens the stable growth of global trade, it said.