General

Signed the memorandum of understanding on e-commerce cooperation between China and the Philippines, held a symposium on European enterprises, attended the small ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization in Davos, held a video meeting with the Australian Trade Minister Farrell, and met with the President of Nicaragua, Minister of Investment, Trade and International Cooperation Laureano... Since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Commerce has actively played a role in promoting multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation, and tightened the ties of cooperation through visits and talks, Build a strong backing for international trade enterprises to "go out".

At the same time, enterprises are also making full efforts to open a new course in the face of the favorable spring breeze. "Since the start of construction on January 28, all production lines have been put into full production. At the beginning of this year, the foreign trade orders of Galanz for microwave ovens, ovens, refrigerators, dishwashers and other products have been scheduled for the second quarter," said the relevant person in charge of Galanz.

"Just after the 15th day of the first month, the company sent several agrochemical personnel to the markets of Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries to do the work of mapping." Zhai Wugong, the general manager of Jiangsu Huachang Chemical Import and Export Company, told the International Business News reporter that the team went to sea to understand the trend changes of the planting structure and fertilizer import channels in Southeast Asia during the three years of the outbreak of the epidemic, so that the company can make corresponding product export adjustments according to the market demand.

Foreign trade enterprises have strong confidence in actively "going out", which comes from the positive "full scale" assistance of deepening bilateral and multilateral economic and trade cooperation. In order to fully implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and earnestly implement the deployment of the Central Economic Work Conference, the National Business Work Teleconference was held a few days ago. "Deepening multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation" was listed as one of the six priorities of this year's business work.

In the past year, China's bilateral and multilateral economic and trade cooperation has made positive progress against the backdrop of the volatile international situation and the risk of recession of the world economy. In 2023, the spring breeze will be full of vitality. China's initial intention to actively participate in economic globalization and global governance will remain unchanged, and its pace will be more sonorous. It is time to set sail and forge ahead.

High-quality implementation of RCEP brings new opportunities for regional economic development

The transportation vehicles carrying materials come and go, one product after another on the assembly line is assembled and formed, and the production line is fully opened... When we enter the Galanz plant, we can see a scene of busy production.

As one of the first batch of "going out" Chinese manufacturing enterprises, Glanz's products and services are exported to more than 170 countries and regions, and has registered brands in more than 150 countries and regions. "Among them, RCEP countries are the key markets of Galanz, mainly exporting microwave ovens, ovens, refrigerators, washing machines and other products," said the relevant person in charge of Galanz.

On January 1, 2022, RCEP officially took effect. Over the past year, China has implemented RCEP with high quality, and the policy dividend has been continuously released, bringing new opportunities for enterprises and effectively promoting economic and trade cooperation and regional economic integration among members.

Tariff concessions are the most important institutional opening achievements of RCEP in the field of goods trade. The reporter learned that according to the terms of the RCEP, the tariffs on some of Glanz's household appliances were reduced, for example, the tariffs on products exported to ASEAN and other countries and regions were reduced from 10% to 5%, which greatly improved the competitiveness of the products.

Like Galanz, Zhejiang Jiayi Thermal Insulation Technology Co., Ltd. also benefited from the dividends brought by the effective implementation of RCEP. Gu Lili, the foreign trade manager of the company, said that at the beginning of last year, the company applied for the province's first RCEP export certificate of origin, and the tax rate of the thermos cup exported to Japan was reduced from 3.9% to 3.2%, and the company enjoyed a tariff reduction of more than 200000 yuan throughout the year. "This year, the tax rate is further reduced to 2.8%, which makes our products more competitive. We are confident to further expand exports."

Gu Qingyang, associate professor of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said that although the RCEP has only been in effect for more than a year, it has brought gratifying changes in promoting trade facilitation, integrating the industrial chain, enhancing the attractiveness of regional development, and promoting the development results to benefit small and medium-sized enterprises and the general public. "China plays an important role in RCEP, and the stronger growth of China's economy will bring broader development space to RCEP in the future."

New progress and new start, upgrading and speeding up of free trade circle of friends

In recent years, China has actively followed the general trend of regional economic integration and actively worked with willing countries and regions to build a mutually beneficial and win-win free trade zone. Today, China has signed 19 free trade agreements with 26 countries and regions in the world, covering Asia, Oceania, Latin America, Europe and Africa. It has gradually built a network layout of free trade zones based on the surrounding areas, radiating the "the Belt and Road" and facing the world. The level of openness in goods trade, service trade and investment has significantly improved.

Jiangsu Huachang Chemical Import and Export Company, which mainly exports ammonium chloride, synthetic ammonia, urea, refined methanol, compound fertilizer and other products, mainly exports to ASEAN countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. At first, in order to enter these markets, the company has done a lot of work. In the past six or seven years, it has held nearly 1000 farmer promotion meetings and developed nearly 100 experimental fields. Through large-scale experimental data demonstration, it has won the trust and recognition of the local market.

Zhai Wugong said that agriculture in ASEAN countries is mainly planted with palm, fruit, rice and other crops, and the company exports corresponding fertilizer products for these crops. For example, the use of rice soil testing formula fertilizer reduced the number of fertilizer application, and at the same cost, the yield increased by about 20%, which was welcomed by the local market.

This is a vivid portrayal of the deepening cooperation between Chinese enterprises and the local in the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. The China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is the first free trade area established by China and ASEAN with the outside world. After more than 20 years of construction, the trade exchanges between China and ASEAN have increased significantly, showing strong resilience and great potential. According to the data, China and ASEAN will have closer economic and trade exchanges in 2022, with the import and export volume of international trade reaching 6.52 trillion yuan, an increase of 15%. Over the same period, the share of ASEAN in China's foreign trade increased by 1 percentage point to 15.5% from 2021.

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward "expanding the network of high-standard free trade zones facing the world", which pointed out the direction, objectives and requirements for China to build high-standard free trade zones and promote high-level opening up under the new historical conditions. In the first year of 2023, there will be new actions in the construction of the Free Trade Area: on February 7, the first round of negotiations on the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 was launched. The two sides held in-depth discussions on the procedural rules, organizational arrangements and work plans of the negotiations, and formulated a timetable and road map for the follow-up negotiations. In the view of Xiao Yaofei, professor of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and senior researcher of Guangdong Institute of International Strategy, promoting the construction of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0 is of great significance in four aspects. First, this is the need for high-quality economic development and high-level opening up. Secondly, it is conducive to China playing a greater role in RCEP, bringing new vitality to RCEP, and promoting the construction of the "the Belt and Road", especially the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Thirdly, ASEAN has become China's largest trading partner. China and ASEAN are highly complementary in resource element endowments. It is easy to work together to establish a regional industrial chain supply chain value chain system and build a China-ASEAN community of shared future. Finally, it is conducive to giving full play to the comparative advantages of China's private enterprises, small and micro enterprises, and promoting enterprises to "go out".

China is full of sincerity in opening to the outside world at a high level

At present, China is continuing to promote its accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA).

The Ministry of Commerce has repeatedly stressed that joining the CPTPP will help China expand its high-level opening up, improve the quality and level of international circulation, promote in-depth reform, promote high-quality development, and also help CPTPP member countries expand their market in China, the world's second largest economy, and expand economic and trade cooperation with China.

When talking about how to promote the process of accession, Bian Yongzu, executive deputy editor of Management Modernization magazine and visiting scholar of Yale University in the United States, said that on the one hand, we should make full use of China's super-scale economy and market advantages. To give full play to its advantages, CPTPP must attract the participation of large economies. China is not only the second largest economy in the world, but also the largest trade country in goods and the largest single market. This is very attractive to CPTPP member countries, and China should make full use of this advantage. On the other hand, China should speed up the construction of domestic market system, improve the business environment, and accelerate the reform of state-owned enterprises. Enterprises with different ownership should be treated equally, and efforts should be made to protect workers, in line with international high standards.

The comprehensive promotion of China's accession to DEPA is another powerful action for China to continue to promote a higher level of opening-up. In August 2022, the working group on China's accession to DEPA was formally established, which means that China will comprehensively promote the negotiations on its accession to DEPA.

Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of the International Business School of Zhejiang University, suggested that in the next step, we should do a good job in three aspects to promote the process of joining DEPA: first, cross-border digital trade, that is, further improve the cross-border e-commerce trade facilitation. The second is digital service trade, such as developing digital technology import and export, helping Asian, African and Latin American countries establish websites and develop APP, etc. At the same time, special emphasis should be placed on intellectual property protection. The third is the data element circulation mechanism. At present, there are some institutional obstacles in the domestic data element circulation. In the future, it is necessary to further improve the rules of the data transaction market.

Maintain the multilateral system and contribute to China's plan and strength

China is an advocate of international cooperation and a supporter of multilateralism. Over the past 20 years after China's accession to the WTO, China has earnestly fulfilled relevant commitments and made outstanding contributions to the stable operation of the WTO and the development of global trade and economy. The scale and strength of the multilateral trading system represented by the WTO have been greatly expanded due to China's accession.

In June 2022, the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) reached a package of 10 agreements on intellectual property rights exemption and epidemic response of COVID-19 vaccine, fishery subsidies, food security, WTO reform, e-commerce, etc., with fruitful results.

Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs of Renmin University of China, said that the appellate body of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism had been suspended for many years, resulting in serious challenges to the multilateral trading system. MC12 can achieve some results on the above-mentioned soft issues, marking a key and important victory for multilateralism, which is conducive to maintaining the international system centered on the United Nations and the international trading system centered on the WTO. China will strive to promote the implementation of its achievements.

Speaking about how China should play its role as a major country in the specific implementation, Bian Yongzu believed that, on the one hand, China should focus on coordinating with other countries in the world, accelerate the improvement of the epidemic prevention and control system, break the barriers that hinder international trade and economic recovery, and promote the flow of people, logistics, and capital around the world. On the other hand, China should implement measures to protect intellectual property in a solid manner. "In recent years, China's intellectual property protection work has achieved remarkable results. As China moves forward to build a powerful trading country, intellectual property protection work needs to spend more efforts to promote, especially to strengthen the fight against intellectual property infringement and create a soil conducive to innovation and development."

At present, the "adverse wind" of global trade is strong, and the reform of the WTO has a long way to go. How to further promote the pace of reform to better promote world economic and trade cooperation is still an important issue. Bian Yongzu said that it is in the interests of all member countries to accelerate the reform of the WTO. China should put forward reform related issues as soon as possible from the perspective of safeguarding the interests of developing countries, guide the reform direction, and maintain the world fair trade system; At the same time, China should also share its experience and achievements in the construction of regional trading systems, such as RCEP, and contribute wisdom and strength to the reform of the WTO.