China's total trade in September was 218.8 billion USD, with import being 103.01 billion USD and export being 115.93 billion USD, according to the release by China's Customs. 

Compared with the same month of 2008, the total trade was still 10% lower.  However, total import was just 3.5% lower, as compared with export being 17%.   This means China's import grew faster than export, which will help to reduce the trade balance with the rest of the world.

As can be seen from the chart below, total export was at its peak in September 2008, and import was also near its peak.  So the year-on-year comparison can be misleading.  Even if the trade level remains the same, the year-on-year import comparison will become positive in October and export will become positive in November.

In the first 9 months, China's total trade 1.558 trillion USD, down 20.9% year on year, with which, total export was 846.65 billion USD and total import was 711.2 billion USD.