General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: China will promote the accelerated development of new formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce, and cultivate new momentum for foreign trade.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "China will tap the potential for foreign trade growth and make positive contributions to promoting international trade growth and world economic development. China will promote the accelerated development of new formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce and cultivate new impetus for foreign trade."

In the face of a once-in-a-century change and a century-long pandemic, China has promoted high-level opening-up to promote in-depth reforms and driven faster growth in foreign trade. Data released by the General Administration of Customs shows that in the first two months of this year, China's total import and export value reached 6.2 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.3%, and foreign trade achieved a stable start.

This year's Government Work Report sets "ensuring stability and improving quality" as the expected goal for import and export development, and clearly proposes "expanding high-level opening-up and promoting the stable development of foreign trade and foreign investment." In accordance with the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, various localities and departments focus on stabilizing the scale, improving quality, and promoting innovation, continuously releasing policy dividends, continuously expanding the space for foreign economic and trade cooperation, and promoting the confidence of foreign trade in ensuring stability and improving quality.

Stable start, impressive results

"A reduction of 0.7 percentage points in the first year, and ultimately a 10% reduction in import tariffs can be enjoyed. After the RCEP came into effect, our export orders to the Japanese market increased by 10%." Recently, Huang Jianfang, customs manager of Jiangsu Suzhou Jinhu Knitting Garment Co., Ltd., said that in the first two months of this year, the company applied for 51 RCEP certificates of origin to Japan, and the enthusiasm of employees has increased.

On January 1, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world's largest free trade agreement, officially came into effect. Benefiting from the policy dividends brought about by the implementation of the RCEP, the export competitiveness of Suzhou Jinhu Knitting Garment Co., Ltd. has been further enhanced.

China's foreign trade has ushered in a "good start." Judging from the import and export data in the first two months, the main characteristics are as follows:

Stable scale. Exports totaled 3.47 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.6%; imports totaled 2.73 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.9%... In the first two months, against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic still spreading, high raw material prices, and supply chain disruptions, China's foreign trade performance is remarkable. "This year's stable start for foreign trade was achieved on the basis of a high base in 2021, which is particularly valuable." Gu Xueming, director of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in 2021, China's total import and export value exceeded both the 5 trillion yuan and 6 trillion US dollar milestones, setting a historical high. In the first two months of this year, the total value of foreign trade imports and exports again achieved double-digit growth, fully demonstrating China's strong resilience and comprehensive competitiveness in foreign trade, laying a solid foundation for ensuring stability and improving quality in foreign trade throughout the year.

Optimized structure. Exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 2.02 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.9%, of which exports of automatic data processing equipment and parts reached 250.76 billion yuan, an increase of 7.2%... In the first two months, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products maintained good momentum, the commodity structure became more reasonable, imports and exports became more balanced, and the quality of foreign trade further improved. In addition, the vitality of foreign trade entities has been effectively stimulated. In the first two months, the import and export volume of private enterprises reached 2.99 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.1%, and its share of the total value of foreign trade increased by 1.1 percentage points compared with the same period last year to 48.2%, becoming an important force in China's foreign trade growth.

Precise policies. Since last year, China has precisely introduced a series of policy measures to stabilize entities, stabilize the market, and ensure the stability and smooth operation of foreign trade industry chains and supply chains. For example, continuing and improving some tax reduction and fee reduction policies, implementing new structural tax reductions, increasing financial support for small and micro enterprises, accelerating the development of new formats and models of foreign trade, and further deepening the reform of cross-border trade facilitation, etc. The implementation of this series of policies has continuously released effects, greatly stimulating the vitality of market entities and becoming an important support for the steady growth of foreign trade.

Innovative development, new impetus continues to gather

At the multi-mode supervision center of Weihai Customs in Shandong Province, a batch of cross-border e-commerce retail import goods from South Korea are waiting to be inspected and released on the assembly line. "This batch of goods totals 2909 pieces, with a value of 130,000 yuan, mainly including cosmetics and other daily necessities." Shao Pengfei, the e-commerce sea freight manager of Shandong Fanzhong Logistics Co., Ltd., said that unlike usual, this batch of goods also includes photographic equipment such as tripods, which are newly added import goods to the "whitelist."

The "whitelist" mentioned by Shao Pengfei refers to the list of cross-border e-commerce retail import goods. At the beginning of this year, eight ministries and commissions including the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Announcement on Adjusting the List of Cross-border E-commerce Retail Import Goods," which, from March 1, optimized and adjusted the list of cross-border e-commerce retail import goods, adding 29 items such as skiing equipment, household dishwashers, and photography tripods. The adjusted list now includes 1476 items.

"The increasing number and richer categories of commodity tariff items are conducive to promoting the development of new formats in cross-border e-commerce and promoting high-quality development of foreign trade." Tian Guofeng, executive vice secretary-general of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said.

The main person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce stated that promoting the stable development of foreign trade, enhancing the comprehensive competitiveness of foreign trade, and promoting the high-quality development of foreign trade all require placing innovative development in a more prominent position. Localities, departments, and foreign trade enterprises are closely focusing on building a new development pattern, innovating development models, optimizing the layout of the international market, and actively cultivating new impetus for foreign trade. A series of innovative measures will not only help stabilize the basic foreign trade, but also help further enhance the new advantages of enterprises in participating in international cooperation and competition.

New formats are constantly emerging:

With more than 4,000 customers, an average daily processing volume of about 400,000 orders, and a total overseas warehouse area of 1.2 million square meters, the cross-border e-commerce infrastructure service provider, Fujian Zongteng Network Co., Ltd., has now built a cross-border logistics network covering multiple countries around the world and spanning six continents.

"Overseas warehouses have played an important supporting role in assisting the smooth operation of global foreign trade industry chains and supply chains, becoming an important link in stabilizing foreign trade." Wang Zuan, president of Zongteng Group, said. According to reports, at present, the number of overseas warehouses invested and constructed by Chinese enterprises has exceeded 2,000, with a total area exceeding 16 million square meters.

New platforms are full of vitality:

"Taking advantage of the expansion of the cross-border e-commerce pilot zones, we are working to expand our business to more regions." A person in charge of an enterprise engaged in international logistics business said that the cross-border e-commerce pilot zones provide policy support in terms of funds, credit, export credit insurance, and public service platform construction, laying the foundation for the rapid development of logistics enterprises.

Comprehensive bonded zones and cross-border e-commerce pilot zones are important platforms for opening up to the outside world. In 2021, the import and export volume of China's comprehensive bonded zones, free trade pilot zones, and Hainan free trade port increased by 24.3%, 26.4%, and 57.7% respectively compared to 2020. The State Council recently issued the "Reply on Agreeing to Establish Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zones in 27 Cities and Regions including Ordos", bringing the total number of cross-border e-commerce pilot zones in China to 132. Experts say that establishing a new batch of comprehensive pilot zones will help to stimulate the vitality of foreign trade entities, improve the efficiency of foreign trade operations, stabilize the foreign trade industrial chain and supply chain, and achieve the integration of industrial digitalization and trade digitalization.

New markets are being rapidly developed

On March 14, 126 special containers declared for export by Dalian CNR Container Co., Ltd. passed customs quickly and were exported to Kenya. "With the booming development of the Belt and Road market, the demand for special containers is increasing, sales channels have opened up, and this has further boosted our confidence in upgrading products." said Xu Randy, market manager of Dalian CNR Group Co., Ltd.

While cultivating traditional markets such as Europe and the United States, a large number of foreign trade enterprises are accelerating the development of emerging markets such as countries along the Belt and Road, continuously improving their ability to resist market risks. In the first two months of this year, China's total import and export trade with countries along the Belt and Road reached 1.92 trillion yuan, an increase of 18.3%; and its total import and export trade with RCEP trading partners reached 1.85 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%.

Improving quality and efficiency, multiple measures continue to be implemented

This year, China's foreign trade has achieved a stable start, but it still faces many difficulties and pressures. From the demand side, the global COVID-19 epidemic has fluctuated repeatedly, the momentum of world economic recovery is insufficient, and there is great uncertainty in the external demand market. From the supply side, supply chain bottlenecks are difficult to alleviate in the short term, and the supply of energy and raw materials remains tight. To achieve the goal of ensuring stability and improving quality, further promoting the improvement of quality and efficiency in foreign trade requires close cooperation from all parties and the continued implementation of multiple measures.

The General Office of the State Council recently issued the "Opinions on Doing a Good Job in Cross-cyclical Adjustment to Further Stabilize Foreign Trade", proactively doing a good job in cross-cyclical adjustment, helping enterprises overcome difficulties, and especially supporting small and micro foreign trade enterprises in securing orders and stabilizing expectations. The Ministry of Commerce has implemented four special actions: cross-cyclical adjustment to stabilize foreign trade, market diversification, smooth foreign trade supply chains, and innovation and quality improvement in foreign trade, focusing on improving China's comprehensive competitiveness in foreign trade; the General Administration of Customs is working to optimize the business environment at ports and vigorously support the construction of platforms for opening up to the outside world.

Financial support, stabilizing the industrial chain

"We are in the midstream of the industrial chain, and we need to consider both procurement costs and market demand and transportation costs; no link in the upstream and downstream can be ignored." said a relevant person in charge of Midea Group. Today, the support of the China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure) for Midea Group has extended from guaranteeing the collection risk of its own accounts receivable to supporting the upstream and downstream industrial chains of Midea Group. In 2021, Sinosure supported its upstream and downstream industrial chain businesses exceeding 2.2 billion yuan, an increase of over 120%; and supported Midea Group's exports exceeding US$11.3 billion.

In order to further enhance the role of export credit insurance, in February this year, the Ministry of Commerce and Sinosure jointly issued the "Notice on Increasing Support for Export Credit Insurance and Doing a Good Job in Cross-cyclical Adjustment to Further Stabilize Foreign Trade", giving full play to the cross-cyclical and counter-cyclical regulatory role of short-term insurance, effectively strengthening support and protection for small and micro foreign trade enterprises, innovating insurance policy financing products, and improving service capabilities and levels.

Tax cuts and fee reductions, reducing the burden on enterprises

On March 14, Majie (Suzhou) Technology Co., Ltd. declared the domestic sale of a batch of bonded goods worth 2.46 million yuan to the Suzhou Industrial Park Customs. According to relevant regulations, the 823 yuan in deferred tax interest generated by this domestic sales business was exempted.

According to the announcement of the General Administration of Customs, from January 1 to December 31 this year, the deferred tax interest on the domestic sale of processing trade goods will be temporarily exempted. Customs across the country have sorted out the situation of domestic processing trade goods in their customs areas, actively publicized to key enterprises, and helped enterprises make full use of policy dividends.

Customs clearance convenience, improving service efficiency

China continues to optimize the business environment at ports. Currently, except for special circumstances, all 38 types of regulatory documents involved in import and export procedures can be handled through the "single window" for international trade. Relevant departments have expanded the pilot program for "single window" services and continued to consolidate and compress the overall customs clearance time for import and export goods. In December 2021, the overall customs clearance time for imports and exports nationwide was 32.97 hours and 1.23 hours respectively, a reduction of 66.14% and 89.98% respectively compared to 2017.

Currently, the external environment facing foreign trade development is becoming more complex and uncertain, but China's strong economic resilience and the fundamental long-term positive trend have not changed, and the development trend of foreign trade's steady improvement has not changed. Experts say that we should make full use of two markets and two resources, continuously expand foreign economic and trade cooperation, promote in-depth reforms with high-level opening up, promote high-quality development of foreign trade, and make greater contributions to building a new development pattern with domestic circulation as the main body and domestic and international dual circulation promoting each other.

Source: People's Daily, Customs Release, Pictures are for reference only