General

General Administration of Customs: Ensuring stability and improving quality, accelerating China's foreign trade! Overseas, the presence of Chinese foreign traders has accelerated and multiplied - some of them have formed groups to participate in exhibitions without stopping; Some travel on a "continent" basis, visiting customers from one country to another, visiting factories and workshops, and "showcasing" samples to explore business opportunities. In China, another round of policy actions to stabilize foreign trade has intensified - from the central to local governments, encouraging "thousands of enterprises" to expand the market and stabilize orders, improving support measures such as customs clearance and finance, implementing policy combinations, and all parties working together to find ways to release various positive factors.

-7%, 8%, and 15.5%, in the first three months of the first quarter, China's foreign trade showed an upward curve of import and export growth rate, and also demonstrated the determination and confidence to maintain stability and improve quality throughout the year against a complex background.

Stable order:

Restorative growth of overseas economic and trade exhibitions, with concentrated efforts from policy combinations

Not long ago, Chinese companies participating in the 19th Japan "World Smart Energy Week" successfully completed their exhibition trip. Among them, many new energy enterprises have continuously renewed large orders, met new customers, and visited old friends, achieving their aspirations for several years.

Japan is an important market for new energy products in China, with many customers cooperating with domestic suppliers for more than 10 years. After the outbreak of the epidemic, Chinese enterprises urgently wanted to visit them. Since December last year, with the optimization and adjustment of China's epidemic prevention and control, Chinese new energy enterprises have rushed to the front line of foreign trade as soon as possible. "said Meng Jing, the general manager of the business unit of Far East International Exhibition Co., Ltd., who is responsible for the exhibition and organization work in Japan.

It is reported that Chinese enterprises have a high enthusiasm for registering for overseas exhibitions. In this year's "World Smart Energy Week" in Japan, Chinese companies registered to participate quickly, steadily, and accurately. The total exhibition area of Chinese companies has directly increased from 2000 square meters last year to 7000 square meters this year. Local governments have provided strong support for Chinese enterprises to go abroad and seize orders, with Jiangsu, Shenzhen and other places being the first to provide nearly 70% of booth subsidies for enterprises participating in Japan's Smart Energy Week.

Chinese exhibitors have meticulously decorated their booths, arranged their exhibits and sales strategies, and shone brilliantly at the exhibition! "Meng Jing said, and Japanese buyers have also come one after another. Compared to before the epidemic, the number of visitors to this" World Smart Energy Week "has increased by 10%, and Chinese new energy companies have" vigorously brushed off a sense of presence "on the front line of foreign trade.

Expanding the market and finding orders have been the keywords in the foreign trade industry since the beginning of the new year. Some places or groups "go abroad", or promote enterprises to participate and hold exhibitions abroad, or support the holding of offline international economic and trade exhibitions, striving to win more initiative for stabilizing foreign trade in the context of weakened external demand. For example, with the efforts of all parties, overseas economic and trade exhibitions have achieved restorative growth.

According to Wang Shouwen, the International Trade Negotiation Representative and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, an online questionnaire survey was recently conducted on 20000 participating enterprises at the Canton Fair. Based on the 15000 feedback received, the main difficulties faced by enterprises are the decrease in foreign demand and insufficient orders. The International Trade Barometer Index released by the World Trade Organization in early March decreased by 4 percentage points from the previous period, to only 92.2 (based on 100), which also reflects the problem of sluggish international demand.

On April 7th, the Executive Meeting of the State Council once again deployed the work of stabilizing foreign trade, proposing to continuously enrich, adjust and improve relevant policies based on practical problems in different fields, implement a combination of policies to stabilize foreign trade, and help enterprises stabilize orders and expand markets.

Lv Daliang, spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs and Director of the Statistics and Analysis Department, introduced that at the beginning of this year, the General Administration of Customs conducted a "look back" on the "Ten Measures to Promote Stability and Quality of Foreign Trade" implemented since last year, and further optimized and upgraded the measures that continue to be effective based on the demands of enterprises, continuously releasing the dividends of relevant policy measures. The General Administration of Customs will continue to do a good job in assisting enterprises in stabilizing orders and expanding the market, further improving the level of trade facilitation, and assisting in promoting stability and quality in foreign trade.

Expand the market:

Stabilize exports to developed economies, expand markets in developing countries and regions such as ASEAN

The saliva baby has transformed into an international baby. Recently, Suzhou Koushuiwa Food Co., Ltd. successfully exported a batch of 4000 fried foods to Laos.

Suzhou Koushuiwa Food Co., Ltd. is an enterprise that produces and sells leisure food. In China, "Koushuiwa" is a well-known brand, and products such as orchid beans, peanuts, melon seeds, and crisps are deeply loved by consumers. In recent years, the company has begun to look overseas. Among many overseas customers who are interested in cooperation, the company chose the ASEAN country Laos for the first time in its "water trial".

When I first received the order, I had no idea whether it could be exported smoothly, "said the company's relevant person in charge. For example, foreign food policies and regulations are different from those in China, and even the information that needs to be marked on the inner and outer packaging of the product is unclear. Thanks to the help of local customs, the company has gained practical information through various channels and prepared for the entire process, which has given it more confidence in exploring overseas markets.

Stabilizing inventory, creating growth, and actively expanding the foreign trade market are the key to enterprise practice. According to customs data, in the first quarter, China had 457000 foreign trade enterprises with import and export performance, a year-on-year increase of 5.9%.

From the perspective of national markets, in the first quarter, China's imports and exports to ASEAN, the largest trading partner, amounted to 1.56 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.1%, 11.3 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, accounting for 15.8% of the total import and export value; Import and export to the European Union, the United States, Japan, and South Korea amounted to 1.34 trillion yuan, 1.11 trillion yuan, 546.41 billion yuan, and 528.46 billion yuan, respectively, accounting for 35.6% of the total import and export value.

Over the same period, China's import and export to countries along the "the Belt and Road" increased by 16.8%, accounting for 34.6% of the total import and export value, an increase of 3.5 percentage points; Import and export growth of 7.3% to other RCEP member countries; Import and export to emerging markets such as Latin America and Africa increased by 11.7% and 14.1% respectively.

General Administration of Customs: Ensuring stability and improving quality, accelerating China's foreign trade! The executive meeting of the State Council proposed to find ways to stabilize exports to developed economies and guide enterprises to deeply explore developing country markets and regional markets such as ASEAN.

Bai Ming, a member of the Academic Degrees Committee of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that stabilizing orders from developed economies requires foreign trade enterprises to make more use of new products and technologies and put in effort in innovation. At the same time, developing countries and regions such as ASEAN have vast markets, and foreign trade enterprises should better seize the opportunities brought by the China ASEAN Free Trade Area and RCEP, and strive for mutual benefit and win-win results.

Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, openness and innovation are creating new advantages and momentum for the development of foreign trade. It is understood that with the approval of the RCEP agreement by the Philippines, the RCEP will come into effect for all 15 member countries in the near future, bringing more market access opportunities to Chinese enterprises. Wang Shouwen introduced that relevant departments are still negotiating to sign more new free trade agreements, creating a more favorable environment for China's foreign trade development.

Increase confidence:

Give full play to the role of a major province in stabilizing foreign trade and enhance policy synergy

As the "barometer" and "wind vane" of China's foreign trade, the Canton Fair is being held in Guangzhou with great enthusiasm. This year's Canton Fair has fully resumed offline exhibitions, and according to the previous intentions of buyers, hundreds of thousands of buyers from over 220 countries and regions will participate in the exhibition.

"At each session of the Canton Fair, there are a great number of products and businesses. The flow of people, logistics, capital and information flow is highly concentrated, which has strongly driven the development of trade, investment, consumption, tourism, catering and other industries." Chu Shijia, director of the China Foreign Trade Center, said at the press conference recently that relevant research shows that the driving effect of the Canton Fair on the regional economy has reached 1:13.6, giving full play to international trade The important role of promoting internal and external connectivity and promoting economic development.

Running the Canton Fair well has also become an important lever for stabilizing foreign trade. Successfully organizing the offline exhibition of the 133rd Canton Fair and improving transaction effectiveness has been included in the latest "Measures for Promoting Stable Growth of Foreign Trade in Guangdong Province". In this document, Guangdong, a major foreign trade province, has proposed specific measures to address issues such as declining orders, increased risks of enterprise export receipts, declining exports of traditional enterprises, declining traditional industries, and insufficient momentum in emerging industries.

The executive meeting of the State Council requires that the role of a major foreign trade province as the main force for stabilizing foreign trade should be fully utilized, and supporting policies should be encouraged to be introduced in various regions according to local conditions to enhance policy synergy.

What role does a major foreign trade province play in China's import and export map? Based on 2022 foreign trade data, China's total import and export value for the year was 42.1 trillion yuan. Among them, there are 8 provinces with a total import and export volume of over trillion yuan, followed by Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Beijing, Shandong, Fujian, and Sichuan, with a total import and export volume exceeding 32 trillion yuan, accounting for over 70% of the national total.

Among them, Guangdong, known as the "largest foreign trade province", has a total import and export volume of over 8 trillion yuan, accounting for about 1/5 of the national total; Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai account for over or close to 10% of the country's foreign trade structure, playing a crucial role.

In response to the foreign trade challenges and practical problems faced by each region, support measures have been urgently introduced in various regions recently. For example, the "Several Policy Measures for Promoting Stable Scale and Quality of Foreign Trade in Shanghai" proposes 21 measures from four aspects: promoting stable growth of foreign trade scale, promoting innovative development of foreign trade, supporting the development of diversified markets, and optimizing the cross-border trade business environment. The provincial foreign trade work conference held in Zhejiang Province pointed out that every effort should be made to stabilize the stock, increase production, and prevent reduction; Organize the "Thousand Regiments and Ten Thousand Enterprises" campaign to expand the market and increase orders; Actively developing new business formats and models, and implementing 100 cross-border e-commerce campaigns to expand the market for thousands of enterprises.

Bai Ming believes that there are certain differences in the industrial characteristics and structure of major foreign trade provinces. Based on the actual situation of the foreign trade industry, it is necessary to continuously optimize the structure, further enhance the innovation foundation of the industry, and play a good role in stabilizing the main force of foreign trade.