General

In recent years, China and Arab countries have complementary advantages, and their economic and trade relations have developed steadily. Today, China Arab economic and trade cooperation, which has reached a new level, will undoubtedly show greater resilience and vitality, and international trade will develop steadily.

On December 8, Ningbo Zhenhai Gulf Petrochemical Co., Ltd. successfully handled the tax guarantee formalities for 5000 tons of ethylene glycol imported from Saudi Arabia. Zhou Jia, the declarant of Taicang Ocean Shipping Agency Co., Ltd., who is responsible for handling this business, has been very familiar with the handling process of how to submit the guarantee application through the taxation element guarantee filing module of the "Single Window of International Trade". "Enterprises use the registered general guarantee letter for customs duties to guarantee the elements. Within 10 minutes, they can complete the customs guarantee procedures without leaving the home, and do not need to pay additional deposits.".

Arab countries with rich oil and gas resources are China's largest source of crude oil imports. LNG and organic chemicals have always been the main products imported from Arab countries in Jiangsu Province. In the first 11 months of this year, Jiangsu's import volume of basic organic chemicals from Arab countries ranked first in China.

In fact, not only oil chemical products, China has a complete and comprehensive industrial system and a rich variety of commodities. As the scale of exports to Arab countries continues to increase, the two sides have shown their intention to cooperate in more areas. It is worth mentioning that Arab countries, especially oil exporting countries, have actively implemented economic diversification policies in recent years, optimized the commodity export structure and increased the export of non oil commodities. China has also actively expanded its imports of non oil commodities from Arab countries, especially agricultural products, such as fresh oranges and grapes from Egypt, and dates from Saudi Arabia.

"HUB warehouse in the United Arab Emirates is our cargo distribution center in the Middle East. The 'Internet plus+Customs' model has further improved efficiency, accelerated the speed of cargo customs clearance, optimized the approval process, and shortened the customs clearance time. In the first 11 months of this year, the value of electronic products such as laptops exported to the United Arab Emirates and other Middle East countries exceeded 690 million dollars, an increase of about 10% year on year." Lu Chenbin, the customs affairs manager of Wujiang Haichen Warehousing Co., Ltd., told the reporter that as a large logistics enterprise located in Wujiang Comprehensive Bonded Area, Haichen mainly undertakes the global distribution business of Lenovo computer products and spare parts. In recent years, notebook computers and other mobile office equipment produced by Chinese enterprises have become popular overseas, leading to the company's export business.

Taking advantage of the favorable economic and trade prospects between China and Arab countries, there are still many enterprises opening up more new markets. Take Jiangsu as an example. In the first 11 months of this year, the import and export volume of Jiangsu Province and Arab countries reached 152.03 billion yuan, up nearly 20% year on year; The import and export volume with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf Arab States Cooperation Council member countries reached 111.87 billion yuan, up 22.2% year on year. Mechanical and electrical products, labor-intensive products and other major export categories "sail in the wind". Among them, the export of mechanical and electrical products was 50.08 billion yuan, up 18% year on year, accounting for 49% of the export to Arab countries.

Relying on the industrial cluster advantage of "the capital of hotel supplies in China", Yangzhou's hotel cosmetics industry continues to expand the Arab market. "Saudi Arabia, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and other tourist resorts have many high-end hotels, and a large demand for bath gel, shampoo and other detergent products. They are our important international trade export markets." Xu Xueqin, the manager of the foreign trade department of Jiangsu Eurasia Daily Chemical Co., Ltd., said that, in order to meet the personalized needs of customers, the company has planned to develop new environment-friendly organic products since the beginning of this year. In the first 11 months of this year, the export volume of the enterprise reached US $23.96 million, up 91% year on year. Xu Xueqin believes that with the subsequent improvement of the epidemic, the tourism hotel supplies industry will usher in a more optimistic development prospect.

Saudi Arabia is one of the main export destinations of Xuzhou plywood. According to Wu Jianguo, the general manager of Landis Wood Industry Co., Ltd., in the first two years, the share of the company's products in the Saudi market has been increasing, accounting for more than 80% of the local market share. In order to support the export of Xuzhou plywood products, Xuzhou Customs, together with the local government, carried out industrial research, supported key enterprises, provided policy advice and follow-up guidance, and implemented classified management for 130 plywood enterprises under its jurisdiction. According to the application of off-site inspection modes such as "Internet plus" explored by enterprises and product risks, the inspection time was reduced from an average of 4 hours to 2 hours, improving the efficiency of on-site inspection, At the same time, we will give full play to the advantages of information technology to help enterprises cope with export barriers to technology and trade, and help enterprises to expand international trade markets.

The Review and Outlook on Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Arab Countries 2022 released by the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce shows that from 2004 to 2021, the total import and export volume between China and 22 Arab countries will increase from 36.71 billion dollars to 330.24 billion dollars, with an average annual growth rate of 13.8%. China has become the largest trading partner of Arab countries. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Oman are China's four major trading partners in the region. In 2021, the import and export trade volume between China and these four countries will account for 69.4% of the total trade volume between China and Arab countries. By the end of 2021, China had signed bilateral investment agreements with 14 Arab countries and agreements for the avoidance of double taxation with 12 countries.

In addition, with the increasingly close international trade between China and Arab countries in recent years, the internationalization of RMB and the development of RMB offshore centers also usher in new opportunities. In August 2021, the Doha RMB clearing bank will become a direct participant in the RMB cross-border payment system and access the system as a direct participant. At present, the average annual clearing volume of the Doha RMB clearing bank is about 300 billion yuan. RMB has gradually become a new choice for some Arab countries to diversify their foreign exchange reserves.