Creating Trade Opportunities, Optimizing Development Environment and Providing Financial Support —— Promoting Foreign Trade, Promoting Stability and Improving Quality

Recently, the State Council held an executive meeting to study the policies and measures to promote the stable scale and excellent structure of foreign trade. On April 23, the State Council held a policy briefing to introduce the relevant situation.

Stable scale and optimal structure

In the first quarter of this year, China’s foreign trade import and export increased by 4.8%, achieving "opening the door steadily". "This is very difficult." Wang Shouwen, international trade negotiator and vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce, said that it must be noted that China’s foreign trade situation is still complicated and severe, and it faces many difficulties and challenges.

The policies introduced this time are divided into two aspects: stable scale and excellent structure.

In terms of stable scale-

Strive to create trade opportunities. We will extensively resume offline exhibitions in China, improve the efficiency of handling Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) business travel cards, and promote the safe and orderly resumption of international passenger flights. Embassies and consulates abroad have increased their support for foreign trade enterprises and issued specific measures for country-specific trade guides. In the first quarter, 186 exhibitions were filed or approved by the Ministry of Commerce, helping enterprises to supply and purchase docking.

Stabilize trade in key products. Help automobile enterprises to establish and improve the international marketing service system, ensure the reasonable capital demand of large-scale complete equipment projects, and speed up the revision of the catalogue of technologies and products encouraged to be imported.

Stabilize foreign trade enterprises. We will study the establishment of the second phase of the service trade innovation and development guidance fund, encourage banks and insurance institutions to expand cooperation in policy financing and credit enhancement, actively meet the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises for foreign trade financing, and accelerate the expansion of industrial chain underwriting and other specific measures.

Excellent structure—

Optimize the mode of trade. Guide the gradient transfer of processing trade to the central, western and northeastern regions; Revise the measures for the management of border trade and support Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to develop a digital pilot area for global trade; Guide relevant chambers of commerce and associations to adapt to the requirements of green environmental protection, formulate green and low-carbon standards for foreign trade products, and guide enterprises to make good use of cross-border e-commerce retail export-related tax policies.

Optimize the foreign trade development environment. Give full play to the role of early warning system and legal service mechanism, further promote the construction of "single window", further facilitate the handling of export tax rebates, improve the efficiency of customs clearance at ports, implement free trade agreements that have entered into force with high quality, and compile and distribute application guides for key industries.

Wu Haiping, Director of the General Business Department of the General Administration of Customs, said that in the first quarter, 90,000 new customs filing enterprises were added, a year-on-year increase of 59.8%. The Customs will support more enterprises to become advanced customs certified enterprises, steadily promote the international mutual recognition of "certified operators" (AEO) and promote enterprises to enjoy convenience at home and abroad. At the same time, we will continue to help enterprises make full use of free trade agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) to reduce the cost of import and export.

Cost reduction and excellent service

The stable development of foreign trade can not be separated from the strong financial support. Jin Zhongxia, director of the International Department of the People’s Bank of China, said that the People’s Bank of China has taken many measures to do a good job in financial support to stabilize foreign trade.

Reduce the financing cost of the real economy. In 2022, the weighted average interest rate of corporate loans in China decreased by 34 basis points year-on-year, only 4.17%, which is a relatively low level in history.

Guide financial institutions to increase support for small and micro and private foreign trade enterprises. By the end of 2022, the balance of Pratt & Whitney small and micro loans increased by 24% year-on-year, reaching 24 trillion yuan.

Guide financial institutions to provide exchange rate risk management services for foreign trade enterprises, and reduce foreign exchange transaction fees related to small and medium-sized enterprises in banking services. Last year, the hedging ratio of enterprises increased by 2.4 percentage points compared with the previous year, reaching 24%, and the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises to avoid the risk of exchange rate fluctuations was further improved.

Continue to optimize the RMB settlement environment for cross-border trade and improve the level of cross-border trade facilitation. Last year, the scale of cross-border RMB settlement in goods trade increased by 37% year-on-year, accounting for 19%, an increase of 2.2 percentage points over 2021.

Give play to the role of export credit guarantee, help business entities to prevent risks, expand markets and stabilize orders, and achieve positive results, which are widely welcomed by enterprises and industries.

Li Xinggan, director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in the first quarter, the number of small and medium-sized enterprises supported by short-term insurance accumulated by CITIC Insurance Company reached 142,000, an increase of 26.2%. The underwriting amount reached US$ 60.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21.8%. It is necessary to continue to promote the export credit guarantee institutions to optimize the underwriting scheme for small and medium-sized micro-foreign trade enterprises, increase one-on-one service and expand the coverage of underwriting for small and medium-sized micro-foreign trade enterprises. In particular, it is necessary to optimize underwriting and claim settlement conditions and enhance the sense of experience and acquisition of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Digital empowerment upgrade

The Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments and localities, has formulated a plan for the construction of a digital pilot area for global trade in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Li Xinggan said that the Ministry of Commerce is focusing on improving the efficiency of the whole trade process, researching and promoting the digital empowerment upgrade of trade links, trade services and trade entities, and helping enterprises reduce transaction costs.

Promote the digitalization of trade supply and mining docking. All localities actively develop digital exhibitions and "cloud exhibitions", and the Ministry of Commerce will actively support them with relevant departments and take various measures to facilitate interactive exchanges and trade transactions between merchants.

Promote the digitalization of trade service platforms. Promote the enhancement of the "single window" function of international trade and strengthen the digital application of the whole trade chain. Some places have made active and effective explorations. For example, Chongqing is trying out the application of electronic bill of lading system, and through blockchain technology, the electronic circulation of freight bill of lading process is realized. The Ministry of Commerce will guide local governments to develop and access local characteristic application plates on the basis of the standard version of "single window", and strive to implement "one-stop" application integration, thus improving the efficiency of enterprise customs declaration and promoting cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

Promote the digitalization of foreign trade infrastructure. Support local and large enterprises to continuously accelerate the construction of smart ports and smart overseas warehouses, promote the application of safe and controllable automatic loading and unloading and intelligent systems, improve the level of electronic circulation of port operation documents, and promote the pilot data sharing and collaborative operation among ports, warehouses, freight forwarders, shipping companies, transportation enterprises and foreign trade enterprises in some cities of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and implement intelligent management of the whole process.

Promote the construction of international rules for trade digitalization. In March this year, the working group of China’s accession to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) held the first consultation, and exchanged views with members on paperless trade, domestic electronic transaction framework, logistics, electronic invoices, electronic payment and other issues. At the same time, support some provinces and cities to carry out international cooperation in trade digitalization. Shenzhen, Suzhou and other places are exploring cross-border compatible docking of electronic invoices, digital identities and other systems. (Reporter Luo Shanshan)