General

In June this year, Chongqing Huidi Aviation Equipment Co., Ltd. completed the offshore trade business of a batch of aviation lubricants worth US$430,000 in the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone. In the past, the company's lubricants needed to be transported through ports such as Singapore to the mainland free trade zone, and then shipped to Hong Kong through the mainland free trade zone, and finally to the company. This method of transportation has high logistics costs. Under the offshore trade, the transportation route has changed from "Singapore-Chongqing-Hong Kong" to "Singapore-Hong Kong", and the normal time limit has been reduced from 30 days to 7 days, helping enterprises to reduce logistics costs by 60% and transportation time by 77%. The tax is 200,000 RMB. From January to May 2022, the Qingdao area of Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone achieved a year-on-year increase of 35% in new offshore trade volume; in the first half of 2022, the new offshore international trade balance of Hainan Free Trade Port totaled US$8.552 billion, an increase of 1.4% year-on-year. Times...International trade is developing steadily.

In recent years, offshore trade, as one of the new formats and new models of foreign trade, has played an increasingly important role in promoting the high-quality development of international trade in countries and regions. The state actively supports the development of offshore trade. In July 2021, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Formats and New Models of Foreign Trade", which clearly stated "further strengthening the innovation of offshore trade business in the Pilot Free Trade Zone". Several Measures for Reform and Innovation in the Facilitation of Trade and Investment in the District", which proposes to support the development of offshore trade in the Pilot Free Trade Zone to release the potential of new trade methods. In March this year, the Ministry of Commerce stated that it would cultivate a number of offshore trade center cities (regions) and continue to promote the innovative development of foreign trade. The "14th Five-Year Plan for High-Quality Development of Foreign Trade" mentioned that the development of offshore trade should be supported. Innovate financial supervision, encourage banks to explore and optimize business authenticity review methods, improve review efficiency, and provide high-quality financial services for authentic and compliant offshore trade businesses. Support the development of offshore trade in Hainan Free Trade Port, Pilot Free Trade Zone and other places where conditions permit. Explore and cultivate a group of offshore trade business entities with strong risk control capabilities and sound internal compliance systems. Promote the establishment of national or regional offshore trade industry organizations.

Recently, in a lecture on financial services for cross-border and offshore trade, Li Yong, deputy director of the Dongying Comprehensive Bonded Zone Management Committee, said that offshore trade, as a high-end form of international trade, can drive offshore finance, offshore taxation and offshore settlement, etc. business development. Offshore trade has become one of the important indicators to measure the degree of economic openness and trade development of a country or region. Actively exploring the multiple benefits of developing offshore trade. The development of offshore trade is conducive to the gathering of high-end elements such as information, capital, talents, data, and trade decision-making centers. . Because the logistics of offshore trade is not within the territory, for China, its development helps to avoid trade frictions, promote the diversification of trade methods, and promote the transformation of trade models to high-end forms.

Li Yong further analyzed that, from a macro perspective, the core of developing new offshore trade lies in the formation of intensive capital flows and the formation of an international financial center. The development of new offshore trade will help increase the scale of regional GDP and build a trade and financial center. At the same time, it can also gather the headquarters of multinational companies, play an important node role of multinational companies, and play an important industrial agglomeration effect. From the perspective of enterprises, the new type of offshore trade helps to optimize the global resource allocation of multinational companies and enhance their position in the global value chain. It helps multinational companies or offshore trading companies to optimize their tax planning, reduce costs, increase benefits, effectively avoid risks, and help companies take advantage of global resources and policy advantages for overall development.

Regarding how to innovate the offshore trade supervision model, Li Yong said, on the one hand, implement the subject classification supervision, explore the "negative list + positive list" supervision model, guide industry self-discipline, and promote commercial banks to optimize business operation norms according to the characteristics of offshore trade, and implement Differentiated management, focusing on related party transactions, changes in the amount of receipts and payments, large and high-frequency receipts and payments, etc. On the other hand, implement systematic monitoring and management, strengthen coordination among departments such as commerce, customs, the People's Bank of China, foreign exchange management, etc., promote the construction of data and information sharing platforms, and improve cross-departmental joint monitoring capabilities, focusing on classification, collaboration, and intelligent detection and analysis. , to conduct scientific monitoring of cross-border capital flows and risks. Expand offshore trade supervision methods, from direct supervision to a combination of supervision and early warning.

The current international situation is complex and changeable, and enterprises face certain challenges in participating in international competition. Li Yong believes that enterprises should be encouraged to explore the international trade market. Give full play to the technological and innovative advantages of the enterprise, actively carry out multi-level and multi-angle international economic and trade cooperation, and obtain more overseas orders. Under the premise of controllable risks, pilot offshore trade settlement facilitation and honest cross-border capital payment.

"The characteristics of offshore trade determine that business-leading companies should be familiar with the laws, regulations and definitions of related matters in the countries and regions where business is exported and imported, and must be forward-looking to avoid problems with legality." Li Yong said that special research and judgment should be established. And the consultation mechanism, tailor-made personalized solutions for enterprises to meet the diversified business needs of enterprises.

"At the same time, relevant supporting policies and services should also be improved." In Li Yong's view, it is the key to attract multinational companies or offshore companies to carry out offshore trade business and formulate a competitive tax policy. Therefore, relevant laws and regulations on taxation of offshore business should be formulated, and tax collection and management rates that are in line with international standards should be implemented; superior and complete port infrastructure construction and management services are the necessary physical conditions for the development of offshore trade, and should be gradually improved; and headquarters economy, according to the new situation, timely release relevant policy documents for the introduction of headquarters of multinational companies to enhance the attractiveness of multinational companies.