Responding to new changes in the situation, helping enterprises overcome difficulties and stabilize foreign trade - multiple departments explain in detail several policy measures to promote stable growth in foreign trade
The "Several Policy Measures to Promote Stable Growth of Foreign Trade" was recently publicly released. What considerations are taken into account when implementing measures? What practical difficulties will we help foreign trade enterprises solve? At the regular policy briefing held by the State Council on the 22nd, officials from the Ministry of Commerce and other departments provided a detailed introduction to the relevant situation.
Promote high-quality development of trade
The Third Plenum of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to strengthen the coordination between trade policies and fiscal, financial, and industrial policies, build a strong trading nation with institutional and policy support systems, accelerate the integration of domestic and foreign trade reform, and actively respond to the trend of trade digitization and greening. Wang Shouwen, International Trade Negotiator and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the introduction of policy measures is a specific measure to implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and promote high-quality development of trade.
At the same time, responding to changes in the international trade situation and promoting solutions to the practical difficulties faced by foreign trade enterprises are also important factors.
Wang Shouwen said that in recent years, globalization has encountered setbacks and trade protectionism has become prevalent. From 1995 to 2014, the growth rate of global trade was more than twice that of global GDP, but in the past decade, the growth rate of global trade has been even lower than that of global GDP. Since the beginning of this year, China's foreign trade has maintained a stable growth momentum, but the growth rate has slowed down since August.
The Ministry of Commerce closely tracks and conducts research on the operation of foreign trade enterprises. Enterprises have reported that the coverage of export credit insurance needs to be further expanded, and small and medium-sized enterprises have encountered certain difficulties in foreign trade financing. They have also encountered some bottlenecks in maritime transportation. The introduction of these policies is also to alleviate and solve the difficulties of these foreign trade enterprises, "he said.
Increase financial support
Expanding the underwriting scale and coverage of export credit insurance is at the forefront of the nine measures. The measures propose to increase underwriting support for specialized, refined, and new "little giants", "hidden champions" and other enterprises. Strengthen credit allocation in the field of foreign trade. Optimize cross-border trade settlement. Help enterprises improve their level of exchange rate risk management.
Liu Ye, the head of the International Department of the People's Bank of China, introduced that in terms of financial support for stabilizing foreign trade, we should pay attention to reducing the financing costs of the real economy, guide financial institutions to increase support for foreign trade enterprises, continue to improve enterprise exchange rate risk management services, and continue to optimize the cross-border RMB settlement environment. Next, we will continue to increase financial support to stabilize the development of foreign trade and promote sustained improvement in foreign trade.
When it comes to the current and next year's trend of the RMB exchange rate, Liu Ye said that the RMB exchange rate will remain basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level. The factors affecting exchange rates are diverse, influenced by various factors such as the differentiation of economic trends in different countries, geopolitical changes, and fluctuations in international financial markets. In the future, the RMB exchange rate may maintain a two-way fluctuation trend.
She said that the People's Bank of China will continue to adhere to the decisive role of the market in the formation of the exchange rate, maintain the flexibility of the exchange rate, strengthen the guidance of expectations, resolutely prevent the risk of exchange rate overshoot, and maintain the basic stability of the RMB exchange rate at a reasonable and balanced level.
Cultivate new driving forces for foreign trade
Cross border e-commerce is a vital force in international trade. Measures proposed to promote the development of cross-border e-commerce. Continuously promote the construction of overseas smart logistics platforms. Support regions with conditions to explore and build cross-border e-commerce service platforms, providing enterprises with overseas legal and tax resource docking services.
Wang Shouwen stated that the next step will be to strengthen the integration of supply and demand, and support places with conditions to hold cross-border e-commerce trade fairs and supply-demand integration meetings; Assist enterprises in training and improving compliance capabilities; Vigorously develop cross-border e-commerce to empower industrial belts, encourage platform enterprises and chain owners to delve into local characteristic industrial belts, and cooperate with 165 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones across the country.
Green trade is a new driving force for innovation and structural upgrading of foreign trade products. Measures proposed to expand the export of specialty agricultural products and other commodities. Promote the innovative development of green trade, cross-border trade, and bonded maintenance.
Lin Shaobin, the head of the Comprehensive Business Department of the General Administration of Customs, stated that the customs will continue to use a combination of policy guidance, convenient customs clearance, and technical standard services to support the expansion of exports of characteristic agricultural products, support the innovative development of bonded maintenance and cross-border trade, and further stimulate the vitality of foreign trade growth.
Wang Shouwen said that the Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments to formulate and issue specialized policy documents to expand green trade, creating a favorable policy environment for the expansion of green trade. At the same time, we will continue to optimize public services such as service platforms and specialized training, and strengthen the green and low-carbon development capabilities of foreign trade enterprises.
As a new form of foreign trade, bonded maintenance has seen a continuous increase in business scale and expansion of maintenance scope. Wang Shouwen said that the next step will be to promote the introduction of a new batch of comprehensive bonded zone maintenance product catalogs and further expand the product catalogs; Preparing to introduce regulations for bonded maintenance management and a catalog of maintenance products in the pilot free trade zone, further expanding the scope of opening up; Promote the pilot implementation of bonded maintenance for some high-tech and high value-added projects outside of comprehensive bonded zones and pilot free trade zones; Continuously expanding the scope of maintenance products.
Strengthen the service guarantee for foreign trade enterprises
Measures are proposed to attract and facilitate cross-border transactions among business personnel. Steadily promote the signing of visa free agreements with more countries. Support business personnel from key trading partners to come to China.
Recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has continuously launched visa facilitation measures to improve the experience of foreign nationals coming to China. Tong Xuejun, head of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that in the third quarter of this year, 8.186 million foreigners entered the country, up 48.8% year on year; Among them, 4.885 million people entered through visa free entry, a year-on-year increase of 78.6%. Next, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will further optimize the visa free entry policy to create more convenience for the exchange of Chinese and foreign personnel, especially business personnel.
Since the beginning of this year, key shipping channels such as the Red Sea, Suez Canal, and Panama Canal have encountered obstacles, and some countries have experienced worker strikes at ports, disrupting the international trade shipping market. Measures proposed to support foreign trade enterprises and shipping enterprises to strengthen strategic cooperation.
Wang Shouwen said that based on the measures already taken, the next step is to work with the transportation department to organize local foreign trade enterprises and foreign trade transportation companies to carry out docking, so that the supply and demand sides of maritime transportation can better match the demand; Encourage shipping companies to develop online platforms to meet the booking needs of small and medium-sized enterprises; In conjunction with relevant departments, especially the maritime regulatory authorities, guide shipping companies to optimize their route layout and ensure the supply of transportation capacity for popular routes in Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. (Reporters Xie Xiyao, Zou Duowei, Han Jianuo)
Translated from: Xinhua News Agency
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