General

In the first 10 months of 2022, China's import and export of international trade to the other 14 member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) increased by 8.4%, continuing to show the advantages of RCEP's regional trade liberalization.

On November 29, Zou Ruirui, head of the Legal Department of the Nanjing Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the first batch of experts from the RCEP expert pool of the CCPIT system, said that the entry into force of the RCEP has played a positive role in promoting the development of the cross-border e-commerce industry at the China Cross-border E-commerce Industry High-quality Development Forum hosted by the CCPIT Commerce Industry Committee and hosted by the CCPIT System RCEP Expert Pool and the Executive Committee of the Cross-border E-commerce Circuit. In RCEP, the agreements on tariff concessions and trade facilitation have brought new opportunities for China's cross-border e-commerce enterprises.

According to Zou Ruirui, countries have made tariff commitments through RCEP to reduce the tariffs on goods trade between member countries. Cross-border e-commerce enterprises can use RCEP tariff concessions to reduce the cost of imported goods in international trade and improve price competitiveness. "For products with high tax difference, tariff savings will be huge." Zou Ruirui said, therefore, cross-border e-commerce enterprises can combine the actual situation of the industry, make reasonable use of valuable tariff data under the RCEP framework, lock in products with high tax difference, and effectively reduce enterprise costs.

Zou Ruirui believes that RCEP tariff reduction can also help cross-border e-commerce enterprises achieve long-term customer maintenance and reduce cooperation risk costs. Under the RCEP mechanism, the stability and predictability of member countries' tariff commitments on imported goods in international trade have been guaranteed by law. Enterprises need not worry that cross-border e-commerce sales may not be sustained by customers for a long time due to various price problems.

RCEP rules of origin can also reduce costs for cross-border e-commerce enterprises. From the perspective of production, RCEP implements the uniform rules of origin in the whole region, which will greatly reduce the cost of trade compliance and production costs. From the perspective of the industrial chain, the reduction of the production costs of suppliers may lead to the reduction of the procurement costs of cross-border e-commerce enterprises.

In addition to cost, logistics delivery is also a challenge for cross-border e-commerce enterprises. "If the problem of goods transportation cannot be solved well in the process of online sales of cross-border e-commerce, it is very easy to produce a 'package tsunami' that will impact the entire logistics system," said Zou Ruirui.

He said that using the RCEP trade facilitation mechanism can shorten the logistics delivery cycle. On the one hand, the advanced mechanism of pre-arrival processing and customs declaration of goods can not only allow the electronic submission of documents and information required for the import of goods in advance before the arrival of goods, so as to speed up the release of goods when they arrive, but also use information technology based on international standards to support customs procedures, allow the submission of electronic documents, and speed up the transmission of information and data before the arrival of goods.

On the other hand, in customs inspection and clearance operations, some of the provisions of RCEP are highly compatible with the cross-border e-commerce model. For example, the customs inspection will be based on the analysis of the risk situation of the enterprise and will not require all goods to be inspected on site; The release time after the arrival of goods shall not exceed 48 hours as far as possible; The release time of perishable goods and express goods after arrival shall not exceed 6 hours as far as possible.

"Although the RCEP member countries of some ASEAN countries, for example, have not yet been able to achieve the release of express goods within 6 hours after their arrival, they have developed specific and achievable timetables." Zou Ruirui suggested that in the future, if cross-border e-commerce enterprises make strategic plans to enter a certain market in RCEP, they can focus on such timetables when assessing the level of logistics and facilitation.

In terms of supplier selection, cross-border e-commerce enterprises often face problems. Zou Ruirui said that in the field of cross-border e-commerce, "quality-driven" buyers have high requirements for the quality of goods. They usually use the so-called supplier rating and other methods for strict screening, resulting in a very limited selection of suppliers. If the cumulative rules in the RCEP are used, the raw materials in the country can be used for production, and the goods originating in other countries in which the RCEP is effective can be purchased. At present, apart from the Philippines and Indonesia, RCEP has entered into force in 13 countries. Under the rule of accumulation, the selection range of suppliers will be expanded, and the flexibility of the supply chain will be greatly enhanced.

In addition, the third-party invoice system and the back-to-back certificate of origin are also powerful tools for cross-border e-commerce enterprises to develop the RCEP market. The former supports Chinese cross-border e-commerce enterprises to open the entire international trade market in the form of intermediate trade in the RCEP region. Specifically, it means that enterprises purchase goods from a certain RCEP member country and obtain a certificate of origin, and then send them directly to another RCEP member country and reduce tariffs through the certificate of origin during import and customs clearance. The latter can benefit enterprises building international or regional e-commerce overseas warehouses. After the overseas warehouse built in the RCEP region imports a large amount of goods from other member countries, a new certificate of origin, that is, a back-to-back certificate of origin, will be issued based on the certificate of origin issued by the exporting country to prove that the goods still retain the original qualification. After that, the goods will be divided into other member countries according to the market and e-commerce platform, and the relevant goods can enjoy preferential tariff treatment by relying on the back-to-back certificate of origin when imported in the member countries.

"The third-party invoice system solves the problem of data conflict between the original invoice and the third-party invoice and the data confidentiality of cross-border e-commerce enterprises, and should be reasonably used by cross-border e-commerce enterprises." Zou Ruirui said, "The back-to-back certificate of origin provides a strong support for international trading enterprises in RCEP member countries that do international or regional e-commerce overseas warehouses."