General

Since this year, Jiang Meixia of the Foreign Trade Management Office of the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce has received fewer calls during her work. "We used to receive telephone calls from enterprises to inquire about foreign trade records every day, but now we don't need them," said Jiang Meixia.

According to the report of Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, since December 30 last year, the State has officially cancelled the provisions on the registration of foreign trade operators. If an enterprise wants to engage in foreign trade business, it will automatically obtain the right to operate foreign trade, and no longer need to register with the commercial department.

What benefits will this reform bring? In the future, how should enterprises and competent departments respond?

An important institutional innovation

——Cancellation of registration is conducive to further optimizing the business environment, releasing the growth potential of foreign trade, and promoting high-level opening up

What is the foreign trade registration? Why should we register?

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, the registration system for foreign trade operators was established in 2004. According to this system, enterprises newly entering or preparing to enter the field of foreign trade need to go through the registration before engaging in foreign trade business.

"The right to operate foreign trade is a basic right granted by the state to foreign trade operators. Before 2004, enterprises that want to engage in foreign trade business need state approval." Yang Jianwen, a senior expert of the National High-end Think Tank of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said, "After China's accession to the WTO, China has gradually fulfilled its commitments and is in line with international rules. The relevant approval has been gradually released, and the registration system for foreign trade operators has been established."

In order to optimize the business environment, in October 2019, the 14th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress passed a decision authorizing the State Council to temporarily adjust the application of Article 9 of the Foreign Trade Law in the Pilot Free Trade Zone and cancel the registration of foreign trade operators for three years.

The pilot project has been steadily promoted in the pilot free trade zone and is welcomed by enterprises. The State Council proposed that since the implementation of the above reform pilot, the relevant procedures for foreign trade operators have been streamlined, and the convenience has been significantly improved, which has been widely recognized by market entities; Relevant government departments focused on strengthening supervision and found no hidden dangers in management. The reform measures have been proved feasible by practice and have the conditions for replication and promotion nationwide. Therefore, it is suggested to amend the Foreign Trade Law. "Through a comprehensive summary and evaluation of the three years of pilot practice experience, we believe that the conditions and opportunities for canceling the registration of foreign trade operators nationwide are ripe." Shu Jueting, a spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, explained in early January.

On December 30, 2022, the 38th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress passed the decision on the revision of the Foreign Trade Law, deleting the provisions of Article 9 of the Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China on the registration of foreign trade operators, and the report of Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation.

From December 30, 2022, the local competent commercial departments will stop handling the filing and registration of foreign trade operators. For market entities applying for import and export licenses, technology import and export contract registration certificates, quotas, state-owned trade qualifications and other relevant certificates and qualifications, the relevant departments will no longer require them to provide foreign trade operator filing and registration materials.

The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that this is a major reform measure in the field of foreign trade operation and management, and an important institutional innovation of the Chinese government to firmly promote trade liberalization and facilitation, which will help to further optimize the business environment, release the growth potential of foreign trade, and promote high-quality development and high-level opening up of trade.

Better serve market players

——Save the time and cost of enterprises, encourage more private enterprises to go abroad and explore both domestic and international markets

The cancellation of this registration will be a real benefit to the enterprise.

According to the report of Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, Sun Yuanxin, the chief expert of the China Free Trade Zone Collaborative Innovation Center of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said that in the past, enterprises needed to obtain foreign trade business qualifications through filing and registration, while it took 4-5 days to go to multiple departments for filing and registration.

Specifically, foreign trade operators need to register and apply at the relevant website of the Ministry of Commerce, fill in materials online, bring relevant materials to the offline review, and then get the registration. Only with the original paper version of this registration form can the next step of customs registration be handled.

"Cancellation of registration means that enterprises can automatically obtain the right to operate foreign trade." Sun Yuanxin said, "This will not only save enterprises' time and cost, improve efficiency, but more importantly, it will encourage more private enterprises to go abroad and explore both domestic and international markets."

According to the data released by the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration, at present, the number of market entities in China has increased rapidly from 110 million in 2018 to 169 million by the end of 2022, and enterprises and individual businesses have historically leaped to 50 million and 100 million respectively. "Private enterprises play a major role in China's foreign trade transactions." Xu Kai, an associate professor at the School of Economics of Zhejiang University, believes that the cancellation of the registration of foreign trade operators has given the majority of operators a "reassurance". After that, foreign trade is no longer a special business item, but a part of daily business.

"The main purpose of canceling the registration of foreign trade operators is to serve the main body of enterprises. This is of great significance to small and medium-sized companies that have just entered or want to carry out foreign trade business in the future, enhancing market transparency and further improving the degree of informatization." said Zhang Jianping, deputy director of the Academic Committee of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce.

In the interview, many experts said that it is an international practice to exempt foreign trade operators from filing and registration procedures, which is in line with China's proactive opening strategy and also the need for China to become a trading power from a trading power.

This year, the main body of foreign trade enterprises will have more practical actions.

Li Xingqian, Director of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, said that this year, new trade policies will be optimized to help enterprises reduce costs, increase efficiency, solve problems and continue to improve the comprehensive competitiveness of foreign trade:

——Strengthen trade promotion. Closely connect suppliers and buyers to stabilize export trade. A series of domestic export exhibitions, such as the Canton Fair, will be held offline. At the same time, we will fully support foreign trade enterprises to participate in various overseas professional exhibitions, so as to create more trade opportunities.

——Rationally expand imports. Close cooperation with trading partners, give full play to China's super-scale market advantages, expand the import of high-quality products from all countries, and stabilize the global trade supply chain.

——Deepen trade innovation. Promote the continuous, rapid and healthy development of cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouse and other new businesses. In addition, it will also stabilize the industrial base of foreign trade, continue to optimize the industrial structure of foreign trade, and support the gradual transfer and upgrading of processing trade to the central and western regions and northeast regions while strengthening the general trade.

Continue to improve the convenience of foreign trade

——The Ministry of Commerce will guide all local competent commercial departments to do a good job of linking up after the cancellation of registration

According to customs statistics, in 2022, China's total import and export value of goods trade was 42.07 trillion yuan, breaking through the customs of 40 trillion yuan for the first time, an increase of 7.7% over 2021.

"The structural highlights in China's foreign trade development are prominent, and the 'circle of friends' in the international market is also growing." Zhang Jianping said, "The cancellation of the registration of foreign trade operators is the endogenous requirement and inevitable result of China's institutional opening. In the future, continue to work hard to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment, and improve the convenience of foreign trade, which will create a better institutional environment for China's foreign trade development." Zhang Jianping said.

However, it should also be noted that after the cancellation of the registration of foreign trade operators, if the enterprise is engaged in import and export business, it still needs to go through the customs registration, and keep a record at the customs to obtain the customs declaration authority. In addition, enterprises need to register with the Administration of Foreign Exchange.

What should the enterprise do after canceling the registration?

Many experts suggested that enterprises should seize the opportunity, take the initiative to adapt to foreign markets and seize the market by strengthening innovation.

Zhao Ping, Vice President of the Research Institute of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, believes that foreign trade enterprises should explore "chain development", reduce costs and improve efficiency and enhance competitiveness by extending the industrial chain, connecting the supply chain, improving the value chain, integrating the benefit chain, applying the technology chain and cultivating the ecological chain. "In particular, enterprises should make full use of modern information technology, accelerate the integration of online and offline, promote the connection between production and marketing, match supply and demand, improve the level of digitalization, networking and intelligence of the supply chain, and integrate domestic and international markets and resources," Zhao Ping said.

After the cancellation of registration, the supervision of foreign trade enterprises by the competent authorities has gradually shifted from market access to service and guidance.

After relaxing the access restrictions, how can the supervision work be implemented? Where does the customs information come from? What information is the basis for the customs to handle the formalities of customs declaration, inspection and release of import and export goods of foreign trade enterprises? Sun Yuanxin said, "The coordination and information sharing between the competent authorities and the customs and other relevant departments should be studied and solved, and should not be simply deleted."

Industry insiders suggested that after the cancellation of the registration, the competent authorities should not only take the initiative to sink to the grass-roots level and learn more about the situation of the enterprise, but also increase the synergy with the customs, CCPIT and other units to obtain more information. "Specifically, we can invite more interested enterprises to have a discussion by holding various kinds of foreign trade enterprise exchange meetings and matchmaking meetings, so as to understand the situation. This way is more suitable for large and medium-sized enterprises." Zhang Jianping said, "We can also rely on the districts and counties to let the district and county commerce committees understand the new situation of foreign trade enterprises in the region, and finally summarize and classify. This way is more suitable for acquiring small enterprises."

Shu Jueting said that the Ministry of Commerce would continue to strengthen departmental cooperation and information sharing, grasp the production and operation of foreign trade enterprises in a timely manner, strengthen the analysis of foreign trade situation, improve foreign trade policies and measures, continuously improve the level of trade facilitation, and promote the high-quality development of foreign trade. Huacheng Import and Export Data was observed and reported.