General

On the morning of August 23, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference. At the press conference, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao gave an outlook on my country's foreign trade prospects.

Wang Wentao said that foreign trade is one of the "troikas" driving the economy. Its role has three main aspects:

The first is to promote stable economic development. Judging from 2020, my country's foreign trade scale has reached 4.6 trillion U.S. dollars, and the international market share has accounted for 14.7%, a record high. At the same time, the contribution rate to economic growth reached 28%.

The second is to enrich the domestic market supply. In addition to exports, the China International Import Expo has also expanded imports. Many commodities are popular among the people. Imported goods enter ordinary supermarkets and enter thousands of households, providing consumers with more choices.

The third is to expand employment and taxation. About 180 million people are employed by foreign trade. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, foreign trade has contributed 11% of total fiscal revenue, while foreign exchange reserves have been maintained at around US$3 trillion, which has effectively guaranteed the country’s international balance of payments. In the past, we were already the largest country in trade in goods. Last year, the total trade in goods and services ranked first in the world.

From January to July this year, foreign trade continued to maintain a momentum of rapid growth, with a growth rate of 24.5%, a record high in the past ten years. But Wang Wentao said that there are many one-off factors. For example, some orders will be transferred to us because of the intensification of the epidemic situation in the surrounding areas. As the epidemic gradually slows down, orders may be transferred out again. There are also our anti-epidemic materials such as masks, protective clothing, ventilators, etc. Because the epidemic has affected the sharp increase in exports, there has been a significant decline now. Therefore, we see that the growth in the second half of the year is gradually slowing down, and the situation next year may be very severe. At the same time, we started to recover in the second half of last year. The base figure is relatively high, but it is impossible to continue. We hope that this recovery will be gradually slow, and the final growth will be within a reasonable range. Therefore, in the second half of the year, we will mainly focus on inter-cyclical regulation to keep foreign trade within a reasonable range. Specifically, it is in four aspects: stabilizing growth, promoting innovation, maintaining smooth flow, and expanding cooperation.

Stable growth is mainly about stabilizing the main body and stabilizing orders. Now we are still facing some difficulties, which are also commonly encountered internationally, such as the impact of transportation capacity and the rise of freight, the rise of commodities and raw materials, the pressure of RMB exchange rate appreciation, and the increase of labor costs. These are the impact of foreign trade companies. The "four difficulties" reached, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, are even more difficult. Therefore, a series of measures must be taken to stabilize market players and stabilize orders.

To promote innovation, in addition to traditional foreign trade, we are now vigorously promoting the development of new formats and models of foreign trade. For example, cross-border e-commerce supports the export of high-tech, high-quality, and high-value-added products, and intensifies the overseas promotion of Chinese brands.

Keep unblocked to ensure the unblocked flow of our foreign trade industry chain and supply chain.

Expanding cooperation means deepening international economic and trade cooperation, safeguarding the multilateral trading system, negotiating and signing free trade agreements, upgrading free trade agreements, and integrating deeper into the entire international economic cooperation, not only making our contribution to the development of the world, but also promoting our own foreign trade. Development.

Ministry of Commerce: China has become the world's second largest consumer market and the largest trading country

On the morning of August 23, the State Council Information Office held a press conference, inviting Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, Vice Minister and Deputy Representative of International Trade Negotiations Wang Shouwen, and Vice Minister Qian Keming to introduce positive contributions to business forces and strive to promote a well-off society in an all-round way. The reporter asked.

According to Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, commerce connects domestic and foreign markets, connects urban and rural markets, connects thousands of households, and plays an important role in the great process of building a well-off society in an all-round way. my country has become the world's second-largest consumer market and the largest trading country. Its utilization of foreign capital and foreign investment has steadily ranked at the forefront of the world, and its ability to participate in global economic governance has been continuously enhanced, which has effectively promoted economic prosperity, social development, and improvement of people's livelihood.

The first is to always adhere to the strategic basis of expanding domestic demand and promote the formation of a strong domestic market. my country has a population of 1.4 billion, a middle-income group of more than 400 million people, and a super-large-scale market advantage. Domestic demand is the basic driving force for my country's economic development, and expanding domestic demand is an inevitable requirement to meet the people's needs for a better life. We focus on promoting circulation innovation, creating a quarter of an hour convenient living circle, transforming and upgrading pedestrian streets, promoting the transformation and upgrading of the retail industry, promoting the innovative development of the commodity market, improving the cold chain logistics facilities for agricultural products, improving the urban and rural logistics distribution system, and promoting the standardization of commerce and trade circulation. The circulation is smoother and more convenient. We strive to promote consumption upgrades, expand consumption of commodities such as automobiles, home appliances and home appliances, increase consumption of services such as catering and housekeeping, cultivate and build international consumption centers, strengthen the construction of county-level commercial systems, and promote rural consumption. We focus on ensuring emergency supplies, and in the face of sudden epidemics and disasters, we strengthen joint guarantees and supply, and go all out to ensure the market supply and price stability of daily necessities. In 2020, the total retail sales of consumer goods in my country will reach 39.2 trillion yuan, and consumption has become the number one driving force for economic growth for many years.

The second is to always persist in expanding opening up and promoting high-quality development with high-level opening up. We continue to expand open areas and further relax market access. The national negative list of foreign investment access has been reduced from 93 to 33. The restrictions on foreign equity ratios in industries such as automobiles, finance, and securities have been relaxed, and comprehensive pilot demonstrations have been promoted to expand the opening up of the service industry. We are actively building new platforms for opening up new heights, promoting the establishment of 21 pilot free trade zones, building Hainan Free Trade Port with high quality and high standards, advancing the innovation and upgrading of national economic development zones, and making every effort to host the International Import Expo, Canton Fair, Service Trade Fair, Major exhibitions such as Consumer Expo and CIFIT. We have accelerated the promotion of institutional opening, and established and improved institutional mechanisms that are compatible with new trade formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce. Promote the promulgation of foreign investment laws and implementation regulations, and fully implement the pre-access national treatment plus negative list management system. Align with international rules and promote the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment.

The third is to always adhere to business for the people and help win the battle against poverty. Winning the battle against poverty is one of the most difficult and complex tasks in building a well-off society in an all-round way. On the one hand, it has given full play to its business advantages and strived to explore a path to poverty alleviation with business characteristics. It has launched five business poverty alleviation measures including e-commerce poverty alleviation, housekeeping poverty alleviation, foreign labor poverty alleviation, industrial poverty alleviation, and border trade poverty alleviation, which have achieved positive results. On the other hand, promote international cooperation in poverty reduction, actively coordinate relevant countries and international organizations, and tilt development aid resources to impoverished areas in the central and western regions, and directly introduce them to fields and neighborhoods. Actively organize relevant foreign-funded enterprises to support industrial development in poverty-stricken areas.

The fourth is to always adhere to the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind and promote mutually beneficial cooperation and common development. We actively promote the joint construction of the “Belt and Road”, deepen trade and investment cooperation with co-constructed countries, intensify economic, trade, and people-to-people exchanges, bring new development opportunities and broader markets to countries, and share the dividends of China's rapid development. We will properly implement cooperation and foreign aid projects, provide assistance within our capacity to developing countries, especially the least developed countries, and strengthen the endogenous development momentum of relevant countries. We actively participate in international economic governance, put forward Chinese solutions and contribute Chinese wisdom on multilateral occasions such as G20, APEC, and BRICS countries, firmly uphold the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core, and promote the construction of a global high-standard free trade zone network.

Wang Wentao said that business work is an important part of the domestic cycle and an important hub linking the domestic and international double cycles. It plays an important role in building a new development pattern, and has a great responsibility and a glorious mission on the new journey. In terms of smoothing the domestic cycle, it will enhance traditional consumption, cultivate new types of consumption, upgrade consumption platforms, optimize the distribution network, and expand the circulation body; in terms of promoting domestic and international dual cycles, it will stabilize the basic market for foreign trade and foreign investment and deepen the "Belt and Road" economy and trade. Cooperation, promote the integration of domestic and foreign trade, build a high-level open platform, and strengthen multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation. Through the implementation of the above "5+5" key measures, we will accelerate the promotion of high-quality business development, and make new contributions to the realization of the second centenary goal and the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.