Despite a slowdown in the growth of exports and imports in the first half of the year, China's foreign trade has continued to expand, while quality has continued to improve, Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, told a news briefing on Wednesday.

China's foreign trade rose 8.6 percent year-on-year, while exports increased 10.4 percent and imports gained 6.7 percent, according to the General Administration of Customs.

However, June saw exports decline 3.1 percent year-on-year and imports dropped 0.7 percent.

Shen said that exports from the central and western regions accounted for 14.6 percent of China's total in the first half of this year, compared with the 14.3 percent in 2012, while exports from private enterprises rose 4.1 percentage points to 41.7 percent in the same period. What's more, exports of electronic and high-tech products made up a greater share in China's total exports.

Export destinations also improved, with shipments to markets outside the United States, the European Union and Japan accounting for 62.4 percent of China's total exports, compared with a ratio of less than 60 percent in 2012, Shen said.

Despite the decline in prices of global commodities in the first half of this year, prices of Chinese exports went up, due to comprehensive competitiveness in brands, quality, technology, and services, rather than the traditional advantage in low prices and low costs, he added.