General

On April 25th, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Stability and Optimization of Scale and Structure in Foreign Trade", proposing 18 measures from the above five aspects to promote the stability and optimization of international trade.

The Opinion points out that foreign trade is an important component of the national economy, and promoting stable scale and structure of foreign trade plays an important supporting role in stabilizing growth and employment, building a new development pattern, and promoting high-quality development. We must fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, make greater efforts to promote the stability, scale, and structure of foreign trade, and ensure the achievement of the goal of promoting stability and quality in international trade imports and exports.

In terms of strengthening trade promotion and expanding the international trade market, the Opinion clearly states that firstly, it is necessary to optimize the supply and procurement coordination of key exhibitions. Promote the comprehensive recovery of domestic offline exhibitions; Local governments, trade promotion agencies, and business associations will further increase their support for foreign trade enterprises to participate in various overseas exhibitions, continuously cultivate self organized exhibitions abroad, and expand the scale of exhibitions. Secondly, facilitate cross-border business personnel exchanges. Continue to provide convenience for overseas merchants to apply for visas to China; Quickly promote the stable and orderly recovery of international passenger flights, especially those at key domestic aviation hubs. Thirdly, we need to strengthen market expansion and service guarantee. My embassy and consulate abroad will increase their support for foreign trade enterprises, especially small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises, in expanding their markets; Release relevant national trade guidelines, find ways to stabilize exports to developed economies, and guide enterprises to deeply explore developing country markets and regional markets such as ASEAN.

Stabilizing and expanding trade in key products is an important aspect of stabilizing foreign trade. Therefore, the Opinion proposes to cultivate the advantages of automobile exports. Local governments and business associations organize direct customer docking between automobile enterprises and shipping enterprises, and guide them to sign medium - and long-term agreements with shipping enterprises. The second is to enhance the international cooperation level of large-scale complete equipment enterprises. We will increase support for export credit insurance to better serve large complete equipment projects. The third is to expand the import of advanced technology and equipment. Accelerate the revision and encouragement of imported technologies and product catalogs.

In terms of increasing fiscal and financial support, the Opinions proposed that efforts should be made from four aspects, namely, making full use of the central financial policy, increasing import and export credit support, giving better play to the role of export credit insurance, and optimizing cross-border settlement services. Including conducting the second batch of demonstration work on improving quality and efficiency in foreign trade and economic cooperation; Research and establish the second phase of the Service Trade Innovation and Development Guidance Fund; Increase support for financing and credit enhancement for small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises; Accelerate the expansion of industry chain underwriting, further expand the coverage of underwriting for small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises, and optimize underwriting and claims conditions; Encourage financial institutions to innovate and improve foreign exchange derivatives and cross-border RMB businesses.

In terms of accelerating the innovative development of foreign trade, the Opinions proposed five specific measures to stabilize and enhance processing trade, improve Border trade support policies, promote trade digitalization, develop green trade, and promote the healthy and sustainable innovative development of cross-border e-commerce. Including the newly identified batch of national processing trade industrial parks; Accelerate the implementation of a batch of key bonded maintenance pilot projects with "two ends outside"; Revise and introduce the Measures for the Administration of Border Mutual Trade; In the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze River Delta region, select 5-10 typical cases of digital promotion of high-quality trade development annually from 2023 to 2025; Encourage local governments to combine their industrial and endowment advantages, innovate and build cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, and actively develop the "cross-border e-commerce+industrial belt" model.

In terms of optimizing the environment for foreign trade development, the Opinion requires that, firstly, it is necessary to properly respond to unreasonable foreign trade restrictions. Secondly, we need to enhance the level of trade facilitation. Deepen the construction of a "single window", expand the application scope of measures such as "linkage unloading" and "ship side direct lifting", and improve the efficiency of goods circulation. Thirdly, we need to better leverage the effectiveness of free trade agreements. Encourage and guide local organizations to promote trade with free trade partners such as RCEP.

In addition, the Opinions encourage local governments to introduce supporting policies tailored to local conditions to enhance policy synergy. Closely monitor the operation of foreign trade, analyze changes in the situation, continuously enrich, adjust, and improve relevant policies based on practical problems in different fields, strengthen cooperation and policy guidance, implement a combination of stable foreign trade policies, and help enterprises stabilize orders and expand into the international trade market.