General

Since the beginning of 2023, China's foreign trade has been under pressure due to the slowdown in external demand, the accelerated restructuring of the international supply chain pattern, and the increasingly complex world political and economic environment.

According to customs data, in the first two months of this year, China's foreign trade import and export value totaled 6.18 trillion yuan, including 3.5 trillion yuan for exports, a year-on-year increase of 0.9%. The scale reached a record high for the same period in history, with 2.68 trillion yuan for imports, a year-on-year decrease of 2.9%. The smooth opening of foreign trade also reflects the challenges it is facing.

The huge impact of the pandemic that has lasted for three years on the economies of various countries needs time to heal. China has been striving to keep its pace and actively share with the world for win-win results. In response to the uncertainty of the external environment, the Central Economic Work Conference proposed that greater efforts should be made to stabilize the scale and optimize the structure of foreign trade in 2023.

In the first two months of customs data, the proportion of general trade increased to 64.9% of the total foreign trade value; The trend of market diversification is more obvious. The total trade value with ASEAN, the largest trading partner, increased by 9.6%, and the total import and export to countries along the "the Belt and Road" increased by 10.1%; The continued vitality of private enterprises and their proportion in the total import and export volume exceeding 50% reflect the effectiveness of a series of policies and measures to stabilize foreign investment and foreign trade, such as increasing support for export tax rebates, helping foreign trade enterprises seize orders to expand the market, and providing various trade facilitation measures, which have been introduced from the central government to local governments.

Market diversification effect further highlights

Recently, society has paid more attention to foreign trade, and it has been on the hot search for a time.

In response, Zhang Jianping, Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of the Research Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that the decline in exports is mainly reflected in the United States and European markets. The main problem currently facing these two markets is that they have entered a cycle of interest rate hikes, market demand has been somewhat suppressed, and the inventory stock during the previous two years of the epidemic has not been digested. All aspects of the situation taken together, coupled with the sluggish economic growth of these economies since this year The slowdown in economic growth has affected China's exports in developed country markets.

"Despite the overall contraction in global foreign trade market demand and the increasing pressure on foreign trade from the end of last year to the present, foreign trade data from January to February show that China's overall situation of stabilizing foreign trade is still good, and China's foreign trade competitiveness has generally withstood the test." Zhang Jianping particularly mentioned that the trade creation effect in the RCEP market is significant, especially the export growth between China and ASEAN countries, China, Japan and South Korea, which is satisfactory, The growth of intraregional trade in Asia has to some extent offset the decline in the European and American markets, leaving the overall foreign trade in a relatively stable situation.

Export markets have blossomed in many places, and imports have become more diversified, which is reflected in local economic and trade data. As the exhibition period of the 3rd China Central and Eastern European Countries Expo approaches, the Ningbo market enters the "Central and Eastern European Time". According to Ningbo Customs statistics, from January to February, Ningbo's economic and trade with Central and Eastern European countries ushered in a "good start", with Ningbo's imports from Central and Eastern European countries reaching 2.69 billion yuan, an increase of 84.9% year-on-year.

"Recently, special products from Central and Eastern European countries have successively entered Ningbo port and been sold throughout the country. This time, the imported products include moisturizing essence, wrinkle removing face cream, etc., which are the flagship products of Central and Eastern European countries, hoping to bring more choices to domestic consumers." Chen Yi, head of Ningbo Dijia Weida Trading Co., Ltd., introduced. According to customs data, from January to February, Ningbo City imported 1.394 million yuan of beauty and toiletries from Central and Eastern European countries.

Zhang Jianping also pointed out that due to the relatively bleak growth prospects of the United States and Europe, the World Bank estimates that the United States has only 0.5% growth, and the European Union is also hovering on the brink of recession. Therefore, the focus of foreign trade development this year is to expand the diversification of the foreign trade market, especially by increasing the implementation of RCEP rules and tapping the market potential of RCEP partner members. At the same time, we should also build the "the Belt and Road" with high quality, and strive to enhance the market potential of the "the Belt and Road" partner members and emerging market countries through mutual promotion of trade and investment, so as to make due contributions to foreign trade.

The foreign trade competitiveness of private enterprises has further strengthened

According to customs data, in the first two months, the import and export of 383 "specialized and special new giants" enterprises in Beijing reached 1.93 billion yuan, an increase of 16.5%; "Double independent" enterprises' import and export amounted to 69.26 billion yuan, an increase of 12.1%.

"Since this year, Beijing Customs has promoted a new round of 'four advantages, four improvements, and five sub' service projects, continuously promoting the stability and quality of the capital's foreign trade, helping Beijing's' five sub 'linkage services and integrating into the new development pattern. In the first two months, the capital's foreign trade economy has witnessed frequent highlights and significant results. The relevant person in charge of Beijing Customs told reporters that the export of new energy products in Beijing has increased significantly since the beginning of 2023.". According to customs data, in the first two months, Beijing's exports of solar cells, electric passenger cars, and lithium batteries totaled 1.98 billion yuan, an increase of 620%. Among them, solar cells reached 1.17 billion yuan, an increase of 65.3 times; Electric passenger vehicles reached 460 million yuan, an increase of 177.1%; Lithium batteries reached 350 million yuan, an increase of 285.2%.

"In recent years, private enterprises' exports have played a leading role in foreign trade, with a gradual increase in their share, indicating that Chinese enterprises with independent brands, independent intellectual property rights, and independent innovation capabilities have made rapid progress in enhancing foreign trade competitiveness. Private enterprises also play an increasingly important role in this process, especially now that 70% of China's innovation is accomplished by private enterprises. Therefore, China has made rapid progress in improving its foreign trade competitiveness." "Our global competitiveness is highly correlated with private enterprises." Zhang Jianping said.

Further release of RCEP corporate dividend

At 11:00 am on March 3rd, with the sound of a "tick and click" printer, the first RCEP certificate of origin for Indonesia in Beijing was issued by Zhongguancun Customs. After that, 10 heavy trucks exported by Beijing Futian International Trade Co., Ltd. to Indonesia embarked on the "road to stay abroad.".

At the beginning of this year, RCEP officially entered into force for Indonesia. Since then, on the basis of the China ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, Indonesia has granted zero tariff treatment to more than 700 tariff lines of products to China. "The import tariff of our products in Indonesia has been reduced from 10% under the China ASEAN Free Trade Agreement to zero, and under the guidance of the customs, this certificate alone can save hundreds of thousands of yuan in tariff costs." Looking at cars "breaking into pieces" walking down the production line, and looking at the orderly arrangement of production equipment in the workshop, Dai Hongkai, Vice President of the overseas business department of the company, was delighted. According to customs data, in the first two months of this year, Beijing Customs has issued 756 RCEP certificates. Beijing's import and export to other RCEP member countries reached 110.41 billion yuan, an increase of 3.8%, accounting for 19.2% of the region's total import and export value over the same period.

This year is the second year since the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) entered into force. The preferential policies such as tariff concessions brought by RCEP continue to assist domestic enterprises in expanding the international market, and assist foreign trade enterprises in seizing opportunities, maintaining orders, and expanding the market. According to foreign trade data from the first two months, China's total imports and exports to other RCEP member countries amounted to 1.91 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.1%.

"This cartoon blanket is one of our main export commodities and is very popular with overseas buyers," said Sheng Zhongxian, the manager of Jima Home Textile Business Department, pointing to the newly produced blankets in the production workshop. Jima Home Textile mainly engages in various types of home textile fabrics, and its products are mainly sold to countries such as Japan and South Korea.

"Through the tariff concessions of RCEP, the tax rate on our travel blankets exported to Japan has been reduced from 5.3% to 4.6%, which cannot be underestimated by 0.7 percentage points. This is very helpful for us to improve our price competitiveness." Sheng Zhongxian said that in the first two months of this year, Jima Home Textile handled a total of 5 RCEP certificates of origin, involving an export value of over 1.6 million yuan.

According to statistics from Hangzhou Customs, a total of 8609 RCEP certificates of origin were issued in the first two months of this year, with a value of 2.433 billion yuan, realizing a tax concession of about 27.58 million yuan for import and export goods across the province. RCEP not only helps many small and micro enterprises such as "Gemma Home Textile" to improve their product competitiveness, but also serves as a "charge" for specialized and specialized new enterprises to explore new overseas markets.

The enterprise staff of Zhejiang Xinhecheng Special Materials Co., Ltd. also felt the benefits brought by RCEP. "The customs regularly promotes the country of origin management policy, allowing us to timely understand the tariff concessions for export goods, which helps us to explore potential business opportunities and better expand our business." said Luo Jinjing, sales manager of Zhejiang Xinhecheng Special Materials Co., Ltd. As a national specialized "small giant" enterprise, "Xinhecheng" has actively expanded the RCEP market and further improved the market competitiveness of its export products.

In order to help more foreign trade enterprises make full use of the RCEP policy, Hangzhou Customs and the Industry Association have conducted research on key industries such as textiles, machinery manufacturing, and petrochemical industry, sorted out the difficulties in enterprise declaration and the entry standards of exporting countries, and provided detailed guidance to enterprises. Through analysis of import and export data, proactively contact enterprises that are eligible for benefits but have not applied for a certificate of origin, introduce the tax reduction mechanism one-on-one, and guide the application method. In addition, it has independently developed the "RCEP Intelligent Benefit Application" and promoted the "self-service printing+intelligent review" mode of certificate of origin to help enterprises enjoy policy dividends more quickly and conveniently.

Wang Wei, Deputy Director of the Customs Department of Beijing Customs, also stated that in order to further enhance the competitiveness of enterprises in the international market, Beijing Customs has helped enterprises familiarize themselves with tariff concessions and rules of origin through activities such as "customs officers delivering policies to their doorstep" and online and offline special training. "We will further expand the personalized regulatory service model in a wider range and at more levels, accurately formulate assistance measures for 'one enterprise, one policy', and provide an inexhaustible source of motivation for enterprises to 'go global'."