General

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) came into force on January 1, 2022.

The population, GDP and total trade of RCEP member countries all account for about 30% of the world's total. It is a free trade area with the largest population, the largest economic and trade scale and the greatest development potential in the world.

What should enterprises do to avoid Sino-US trade frictions and seize the opportunities of RCEP? With the passage of time, the dividend of RCEP policy continues to be released. After the implementation of RCEP, the reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers has been strong, which has greatly stimulated the trade creation effect and further promoted the mutual promotion of trade and investment.

RCEP not only provides new opportunities for China's advantageous agricultural, light industrial, textile and other products to expand their exports to the RCEP market, but also creates favorable conditions for China's automobile, machinery, electronics and other products to expand the import of raw materials and components, and improve product competitiveness.

The data shows that in the first seven months, China's imports and exports with the other 14 member countries of RCEP increased by 7.5% year-on-year. Over the same period, China's trade with countries along the "the Belt and Road" has become closer, with imports and exports increasing by 19.8% year on year.

Next, the dividend of RCEP landing will be further released. Some member countries have gradually completed the approval of RCEP, which has not yet entered into force for Indonesia and the Philippines.

It is worth noting that at present, the market entities using the RCEP policy are mainly large enterprises, and the potential of small and medium-sized enterprises is far from being released.

What should enterprises do to avoid Sino-US trade frictions and seize the opportunities of RCEP? How do foreign trade enterprises seize the opportunity?

For small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises, the formal entry into force of RCEP means great advantages and opportunities, but it is also a double-edged sword.

The "zero tariff" and the rules of origin accumulation deepen the deep integration of regional industrial chains, and enterprises can flexibly choose products with low cost, good quality and competitiveness, which will force enterprises to accelerate the transformation and upgrading.

After the RCEP comes into effect, the circulation of factors in the region will be more convenient, which will accelerate the transfer of labor-intensive industries to low-cost regions in Southeast Asia. At the same time, technology-intensive products from Japan and South Korea will also bring greater competition to Chinese enterprises.

What should enterprises do to avoid Sino-US trade frictions and seize the opportunities of RCEP? Challenges and opportunities coexist. How can small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises seize the policy dividend brought by RCEP, form new advantages for their own development and expand overseas markets?

01 Grasp the new opportunities of RCEP and actively adapt to the rules of RCEP

Over the past six months, many foreign trade enterprises in China have fully benefited from the dividends of tariff preference, customs clearance simplification, trade and investment facilitation brought by the entry into force of RCEP. However, some foreign trade enterprises do not pay enough attention to RCEP and believe that the effective implementation of RCEP has little impact on their business, so it is unclear how to enjoy the dividends after the effective implementation of RCEP.

In order to seize the opportunities of RCEP, foreign trade enterprises must learn and use the rules of RCEP and international prevailing rules, and effectively use the rules of RCEP to expand the international market.

On the one hand, enterprises should conduct a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the RCEP policy, be familiar with the rules of the agreement, understand the tariff preference commitments of the countries in the RCEP, make good use of the favorable factors such as tariff reduction, non-tariff barrier elimination, rules of origin accumulation, and enjoy the lower threshold of benefits for the original products of the RCEP. On the other hand, enterprises should also pay attention to the latest policies and news released by governments at all levels, and actively participate in the government's RCEP promotion activities and related training.

02 Build diversified customer channels and further expand overseas markets

The dividend of the RCEP policy is being released continuously. Foreign trade enterprises should also combine their own advantages and characteristics, innovate the way of obtaining customers, actively "go out" and actively develop overseas markets.

In the face of new opportunities, foreign trade enterprises need to turn passivity into initiative, build diversified channels of customer acquisition, and accelerate the opening of a new era of customer acquisition in the whole chain.

Take the initiative to win customers

Active development has gradually become the main way to win customers in the foreign trade industry. The traditional channels of active customer acquisition include mining customers through search engines, maps and customs data, and manually entering keyword groups one by one to search target customers, which is heavy workload and inefficient.

The rise of social media platforms in recent years has brought new ways for foreign traders to take the initiative in marketing. Such platforms are mainly divided into the following three categories: 1. Graphic platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc; 2. Video platforms, such as TikTok, YouTube, etc; 3. Chat platforms, such as WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, etc. Foreign traders will also actively market products through these social media platforms. This way of communication is fast and intuitive, and can directly search for demand information. However, the platform is highly competitive, and requires higher ability of operators.

What should enterprises do to avoid Sino-US trade frictions and seize the opportunities of RCEP? Active customer acquisition needs big data as support. A user-friendly tool can achieve twice the result with half the effort. Relying on big data and AI emerging technologies, Huacheng Creative Intelligence System supports industry keyword search and map intelligent search, integrates 508 mainstream search engines and 25 general search engines around the world, captures massive customs data and global enterprise information, and the search results cover 187 foreign trade countries and regions around the world, helping users quickly find potential customers.

The automatic email marketing function of the system is convenient and fast, supports email verification, reaches the target customer group in the whole domain, and eliminates the need to send email one by one manually, which greatly saves user time and improves customer development efficiency.

03 Strengthen the training of professional talents and expand the trade space

Talents are the core competitiveness of enterprises. It has been half a year since the formal implementation of RCEP, and the advantages of extensive application of the rules of origin accumulation have gradually become prominent, providing more choices for Chinese enterprises to expand the market.

Enterprises should strengthen the training of professional talents, cultivate and reserve professional talents who are familiar with the RCEP rules, the business of origin and the implementation and utilization of the Free Trade Agreement in a planned way, and establish a talent team that is familiar with the regional industrial situation, proficient in the rules of origin, and strong in foreign languages. Enterprises learn more about the market opportunities under the RCEP framework, which will help expand the trade space.

What should enterprises do to avoid Sino-US trade frictions and seize the opportunities of RCEP? In order to help Chinese foreign trade enterprises seize the policy dividend brought by RCEP, Huacheng Chuangzhi will continue to provide intelligent foreign trade products and services based on big data, provide accurate and efficient solutions to develop overseas markets, and help Chinese foreign trade enterprises accelerate their export!