The latest figures from China's Ministry of Commerce show that the country's total imports and exports between January and the middle of November this year surpassed the total volume of trade recorded in 2017.

Gao Feng, a spokesperson with China's Ministry of Commerce, said the country's expected growth in foreign trade next year has strong underpinnings despite some external challenges.

"As the country continues to push forward with supply-side structural reform, the structure of China's exports and imports will be further optimized, while the growth potential of imports will be boosted. Although external uncertainties such as protectionism and unilateralism will add challenges to trade growth next year, the trend towards economic globalization remains unchanged, and demand from major markets continues to expand."

For the first 10 months of this year, China's trade with the European Union, the United States, and Japan, and also the ASEAN and BRICS countries, each rose by more than 10 percent compared to last year.

Trade with the BRICS countries was especially strong, rising by more than 22 percent.

"The trade data reveals that the diversification of the country's trade market has accelerated, and so fluctuations in certain markets will have a limited impact on the country's broad growth in trade. And China's import demand continues to increase. Next year, the country's foreign trade growth will have a strong underpinning, and will step up to high-quality growth."

The latest report from the International Monetary Fund predicts that the global trade in goods and services will tail off in 2019, but is still expected to grow by 4 percent.

Gao Feng said that next year China will further intensify its efforts to implement policies designed to ease foreign investment restrictions and improve the business environment.

"We will keep a close eye on the foreign trade situation. As for the uncertainty and unstable factors in international affairs, and the difficulties that domestic enterprises may face, we will keep streamlining administration, delegating powers, and optimizing services. To further facilitate trade and business, we'll reduce the cost of imports and exports, develop new formats of trade, and further diversify the markets."

Gao Feng added that the Commerce Ministry would work with other departments to go through relevant regulations in various sectors and finish their revision or abolition by the end of next year.

Some restrictive regulations on foreign investment that go beyond the official negative list have started to be cleared up.

By the end of March 2019, China will lift all barriers to foreign investments not included on the negative list, and launch special investigations to ensure that foreign investors are treated fairly in China's domestic market.