General

How to view the development situation of foreign trade this year? How to further promote the stable scale and optimized structure of foreign trade, assist enterprises in seizing opportunities and expanding the international trade market? At the State Council policy briefing held on the 23rd, relevant officials from the Ministry of Commerce, the People's Bank of China, and the General Administration of Customs responded to relevant hot topics.

A combination of policies to stabilize foreign trade, optimize scale and structure

Under multiple pressures, China's total import and export value of goods trade increased by 4.8% year-on-year in the first quarter. Wang Shouwen, the representative and deputy minister of international trade negotiations at the Ministry of Commerce, said that China's foreign trade situation is still complex and severe, facing many difficulties and challenges. From the perspective of external environment, the uncertainty of external demand remains the biggest constraint.

He said that the International Monetary Fund believes that the slowdown in economic growth in developed countries will be very significant in recent days. Recently, the foreign trade of neighboring countries has decreased significantly. From October last year to February this year, China's foreign trade exports showed negative growth in US dollars. Chinese international trade enterprises also face some constraints and difficulties, such as inconvenient participation abroad, increasing trade risks, and increasing business pressure.

The recent executive meeting of the State Council has studied policy measures to promote the stability, scale, and structure of foreign trade. Wang Shouwen introduced that in terms of stabilizing scale, offline exhibitions will be widely resumed in China, improving the efficiency of APEC business travel card processing, and promoting the safe and orderly recovery of international passenger flights; Help automobile enterprises to establish and improve the International marketing service system, ensure the reasonable capital demand of large complete equipment projects, and accelerate the revision of the catalogue of encouraged imported technologies and products; Actively meeting the foreign trade financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises.

In terms of optimizing the structure, we will guide the gradient transfer of processing trade to the central, western, and northeastern regions, revise the management measures for border trade, and support the development of a digital navigation zone for global trade in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area; We will deepen the construction of a "single window" for international trade, further facilitate the processing of export tax refunds, improve the efficiency of port clearance, implement high-quality free trade agreements that have already come into effect, and also compile and issue application guides for key industries.

Promote enterprises to stabilize orders and expand the market

Helping enterprises stabilize orders and expand the market is an important step in promoting stable scale and optimized structure in foreign trade. Wang Shouwen introduced the relevant situation from four aspects: organizing a series of exhibitions, facilitating business personnel exchanges, continuously deepening trade innovation, and supporting enterprises to explore diversified markets.

When it comes to facilitating business personnel exchanges, Wang Shouwen said that currently, China's international flights have resumed to nearly 30% before the epidemic. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant departments are promoting relevant countries to facilitate the application of visas for Chinese enterprises, and China is also providing convenience for foreign enterprises to apply for visas in China. At the same time, relevant domestic departments are further studying and optimizing remote detection measures to provide convenience for business personnel to visit China.

E-commerce is an important lever for continuously deepening trade innovation. Wang Shouwen said that the Ministry of Commerce is preparing to solidly promote the construction of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, carry out brand training, rule and standard construction, and high-quality development of overseas warehouses.

In supporting enterprises in exploring diversified markets, Wang Shouwen said that the Ministry of Commerce will release national trade guidelines and develop trade promotion guidelines for key markets. We will also make good use of the trade facilitation working group mechanism under the the Belt and Road Initiative to help Chinese enterprises solve difficulties and explore opportunities.

Assist foreign trade enterprises in reducing costs and increasing efficiency

When it comes to addressing the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on foreign trade enterprises, Jin Zhongxia, Director of the International Department of the People's Bank of China, said that the next step will be to continuously improve the floating exchange rate system based on market supply and demand, with reference to a basket of currencies for adjustment and management, continue to deepen the market-oriented reform of the exchange rate, enhance the flexibility of the RMB exchange rate, guide enterprises and financial institutions to establish a risk neutral concept, comprehensively implement policies, and stabilize expectations, Maintain basic stability of the RMB exchange rate at a reasonable and balanced level.

This year's Report on the Work of the Government proposed to increase policy support for export tax rebate, credit insurance and credit. Li Xingqian, Director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in the first quarter, the cumulative number of short-term insurance services provided by China Export&Credit Insurance Corporation to support small and medium-sized enterprises increased by 26.2%; The underwriting amount increased by 21.8%. We will continue to promote export credit insurance institutions to continuously optimize their underwriting plans for small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises, and expand the coverage of underwriting for small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises.

Wu Haiping, Director of the Comprehensive Business Department of the General Administration of Customs, said that new customs support measures will be studied and launched to address the pain points, difficulties, and bottlenecks of enterprises, focusing on further improving trade facilitation level, smooth import and export logistics, optimizing port business environment, reducing enterprise costs, and supporting the development of new business models.

Better leverage the positive role of imports

China's imports account for nearly 11% of world imports, "Wang Shouwen said. According to incomplete statistics from the World Trade Organization (WTO), China is already the most important international trade export market for more than 50 countries and regions. China has been the world's second largest import market for 14 consecutive years. Next, a series of measures will continue to be taken to expand imports.

This year, China implemented temporary import tax rates on 1020 goods, which are lower than the tax rates we promised to the WTO. "Wang Shouwen said that China's import tariffs are lower than many developing countries, indicating its willingness to expand import market access.

He also introduced that China has signed 19 free trade agreements with 26 countries and regions, and signing free trade agreements means that the tariffs on most imported products will be reduced to zero; Give full play to the positive role of cross-border e-commerce retail imports, ensure the stability of bulk product imports, and increase the import of domestic energy and resource products, agricultural products, consumer goods, etc.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance and other departments have introduced duty-free policies for imported exhibits, clarifying the exemption of import tariffs, import value-added tax, and consumption tax on imported exhibits sold during the exhibition period determined by the Ministry of Commerce for the 2023 Canton Fair.

Currently, there are 13 exhibitions in China that enjoy this policy, "Wang Shouwen said, continuing to play the role of platforms such as the Import Expo, Consumer Expo, and Import Expo of the Canton Fair to further expand imports.