Chinanews.com, March 12th. The recent overseas epidemic of new crown pneumonia fermentation, how can we avoid affecting China's foreign trade? What is the supply situation of the national daily necessities market? On the 12th, the Ministry of Commerce held a regular press conference, and relevant officials answered questions on the topic of the epidemic.

Data map: The staff selects 5 kinds of vegetables to make a "set vegetable", which is delivered to the docking area by a special person. Photo by Zhang Chang from China News Agency

The overall supply of the daily necessities market is abundant

At the meeting, Gao Feng briefed on the recent operation of the daily necessities market.

He pointed out that at present, the country's daily necessities market is generally well-stocked and prices are steadily falling. According to the monitoring by the Ministry of Commerce, on March 11, the wholesale price of grain in the 100 large-scale agricultural and sideline products wholesale markets was basically the same as the end of February, and the wholesale price of edible oil fell by 0.3%; the wholesale prices of pork and mutton fell by 0.1%, and the price of beef fell by 0.4%; The prices of white chicken and eggs dropped by 1.6% and 3.0% respectively; the average wholesale price of 30 kinds of vegetables fell by 5.1%, and the prices of 6 kinds of fruits increased by 0.6%.

Hubei and Wuhan have ample supply of daily necessities and overall stable operation. As of March 11, Hubei and Wuhan's key surveys of retail companies, including rice, noodles, oil, meat, eggs, milk, vegetables and other stocks, have continued to increase, and have increased significantly compared with the end of January, ensuring a significant increase in market supply capacity. Recently, the sales of pork and vegetables in Wuhan's major supermarkets have basically remained stable, dynamic inventory is at a high level, and overall supply is guaranteed.

The nine-provincial joint insurance and joint supply cooperation mechanism continues to increase its support for Hubei and Wuhan. The relevant provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities continue to relocate products such as rice flour, oil, meat, poultry, eggs, and milk to ensure the supply of necessities for the people in Wuhan, Hubei. Since January 23, more than 55,000 tons of daily necessities have been transported to Hubei, including more than 45,500 tons of fruits and vegetables, more than 5,800 tons of rice noodles, more than 3,000 tons of cooking oil, and more than 600 tons of convenience foods.

How to avoid the impact of overseas epidemic fermentation on China's foreign trade?

The resumption of production and recovery of Chinese foreign trade companies is gradually increasing, but the current overseas epidemic fermentation has impacted the global supply chain. How can it avoid affecting China's foreign trade?

Li Xinggan, director of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the global industrial chain was affected by the epidemic and needed a global response. Proceeding from the actual situation of China's foreign trade industry, the Ministry of Commerce is further improving and stabilizing the foreign trade working mechanism, promoting the positive interaction between the government, industry and enterprises to form a joint force. Give full play to the decisive role of the market in allocating resources and better play the role of the government.

First, the government provides convenience and strengthens policy support. The Ministry of Commerce specifically issued a notice to support enterprises in expanding the import of goods, including important raw materials, and instructed local competent commercial departments to do relevant organizational work. Government departments have taken various measures to simplify the import approval process, further improve the level of facilitation, shorten the approval time, and facilitate import by enterprises.

The second is to optimize the services of industry organizations and do a good job of information docking. Actively do a good job in the supply and demand information services of enterprises, strive to strengthen international exchanges, give full play to the role of bridges, and help enterprises respond to the impact of the epidemic.

Third, enterprises are actively acting and innovating business models. Give full play to the advantages of the new format of foreign trade, extensively collect information on international markets, expand supply sources, and use overseas warehousing and international transportation resources of cross-border e-commerce companies to improve procurement and distribution efficiency.

Affected by the epidemic and the Spring Festival, the import and export fell in the first 2 months

Asked why the total value of China ’s foreign trade imports and exports declined in the first two months of this year, Li Xinggan introduced that due to the epidemic and the Spring Festival, the resumption time of foreign trade production enterprises was later than in previous years, so the import and export in the first two months, especially the export, had a certain degree. Decrease in amplitude.

In order to hedge the impact of the epidemic on foreign trade, the Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with various localities and departments, has intensively introduced stable foreign trade policies, supported foreign trade enterprises to resume work and resume production, and fully safeguarded the market, guaranteed shares, and guaranteed orders. At present, the effects of policies have gradually emerged. Enterprises in various regions have accelerated the process of resumption of production, and their performance capabilities are improving.

At the same time, Li Xinggan also pointed out that the WHO Director-General believes that the new crown pneumonia epidemic has a pandemic characteristic, with confirmed cases appearing in more than 110 countries and regions, increasing downward pressure on global economic and trade, and increasing uncertainty in China's external development environment.

Li Xinggan said that based on the study and judgment of changes in the supply and demand situation, the core of the current Chinese government's trade policy is to stabilize the basic foreign trade. The Ministry of Commerce will fully support the resumption of production by foreign trade manufacturers, restore normal market order as soon as possible, and focus on four tasks: strengthen mechanism construction, increase policy support, optimize public services, and encourage innovation and development.

Data Map: Container Terminal.

19 provinces and cities' key foreign trade companies have resumed work at or near 100%

So, what is the situation of foreign trade enterprises returning to work? Li Xinggan introduced that in support of the resumption of production and production of foreign trade enterprises, the Ministry of Commerce instructed local commerce authorities to do a good job in the prevention and control of the epidemic while focusing on four tasks, that is, highlighting the key points, making good use of policy tools, strengthening services, and making good use of new The new business model supports innovation and development of enterprises. At present, various work has achieved positive results. From the perspective of the overall resumption of work of local foreign trade enterprises, the resumption rate of foreign trade enterprises in 8 provinces and cities including Shandong, Anhui, and Liaoning exceeded 80%. Judging from the resumption of work of key foreign trade enterprises, the resumption rates of 19 provinces and cities such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shanghai have reached or approached 100%.

Li Xinggan pointed out that the epidemic has developed rapidly in some countries and regions outside the country. In the short term, the impact on the global economy and the industrial chain is unavoidable. Global economic and trade growth is under pressure. The resumption of production and new orders by Chinese foreign trade companies will also be affected. The supply chain of the global industrial chain will be disrupted to some extent. However, China's foreign trade industrial chain has a complete structure and strong competitiveness, and its cooperation with the global supply chain is tight and stable.

"The Ministry of Commerce will continue to pay close attention to the development of the epidemic situation and the resumption of production and production of enterprises, strengthen analysis and judgment, implement compliance assistance policies, and support enterprises to resume production and reach production. At the same time, strengthen global anti-epidemic cooperation and work hard to bring the epidemic situation to China's foreign trade and The impact of world trade development is minimized. "Li Xinggan said.

The fundamentals and long-term positive trend of China-Russia economic and trade cooperation have not changed

Will the epidemic affect China-Russia economic and trade cooperation? Li Xinggan introduced that China-Russia economic and trade cooperation has continued to develop in recent years. According to Chinese customs statistics, from January to February this year, China-Russia trade volume was 17.2 billion US dollars, an increase of 5.6% year-on-year. The growth rate ranked first among China's major trading partners. Russia is China's ninth largest trading partner, an increase of one year from 2019. Bit.

Li Xinggan pointed out that recently, the new crown pneumonia epidemic has indeed caused some impact on Sino-Russian economic and trade cooperation. Among them, the impact of trade in services such as tourism is the most direct. Trade in goods, investment, and engineering contracting cooperation in Russia have also been affected to some extent. However, in general, the impact of the epidemic on bilateral cooperation is short-term. The fundamentals and long-term positive trend of Sino-Russian economic and trade cooperation have not changed. Cooperation in the energy field, including the Sino-Russian Eastern Gas Pipeline, has continued to advance.

At present, China and Russia are actively communicating and coordinating, trying to minimize the impact of the epidemic on economic and trade cooperation. At the same time, they are taking measures together to strive to turn "crisis" into "opportunity" and realize the steady and healthy development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

Data Map: Foreign-funded enterprise employees are working. China News Agency reporter Chen Wenshe

Chinese government will continue to support export companies in organizing medical supplies such as masks

With the spread of the epidemic globally, many countries have a large gap in epidemic prevention supplies such as masks and protective clothing. What considerations does China have in helping other countries work together to respond to the epidemic?

Li Xinggan said that with the spread of the epidemic globally, many countries have large gaps in anti-epidemic materials such as masks and protective clothing. He hopes that China will provide assistance or purchase from China. After the epidemic, the Chinese government resolutely took decisive measures to promote enterprises to resume production, expand production, and convert production. The output of medical assets can be rapidly increased, and the overall security situation has been greatly improved.

Li Xinggan also mentioned that China has a population of 1.4 billion and has dense production and living places. The supply of masks and medicines is very tight. In order to reflect the responsibility of the major powers and support countries in fighting the epidemic, we have previously provided timely support to the claims made by the countries concerned. "We always keep in mind that in the most difficult times, the sincere help of some countries and international organizations. In the next step, we will further expand international and regional cooperation and share experience in epidemic prevention and control. While overcoming our own difficulties, we will also provide relevant countries, especially The countries and regions where the epidemic situation is more severe will provide assistance within their ability. The Chinese government will continue to support export companies to organize the supply of medical supplies such as masks to the outside world and make their due contribution to global epidemic prevention. "

The good momentum of China-EU trade will not change

According to a reporter's question, from the perspective of data, ASEAN surpassed the EU in the first two months of foreign trade data and became China's largest trading partner. How does the Ministry of Commerce view this phenomenon? Li Xinggan introduced that on January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom broke out of the European Union and Britain-Europe relations entered a transition period. When the Chinese customs released the trade data, they also counted the EU and the UK separately.

Li Xinggan pointed out that China and the EU are each other's important trading partners. Since 2004, the EU has maintained China's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years. In 2019, against the backdrop of increasing downward pressure on the global economy, China-EU bilateral trade has bucked the trend and hit a record high, with total imports and exports reaching USD 705.1 billion.

Li Xinggan said that since the beginning of this year, the epidemic of new crown pneumonia has affected the trade development of various countries including China and Europe, and the global industrial chain has been disrupted. However, the long-term positive trend of China's economy will not change, and the sound development of China-EU trade will not change. "On the basis of mutual respect and win-win cooperation, we will deepen pragmatic cooperation with the European side and promote the sustainable and healthy development of China-EU trade."

Except Hubei, the resumption rate of enterprises above the designated size in 17 pilot free trade zones is about 90%

In response to reporters' concerns about the resumption of work and production in the Pilot Free Trade Pilot Zone, Yuan Yuan, deputy director of the Port Division of the Free Trade Zone of the Ministry of Commerce, said that for some time, the Ministry of Commerce, as the office of the Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference of the Free Trade Pilot Zone of the State Council, has conducted trials for its own trade. The district implements the central division grading, precision resumption of work and production, and stabilizes the deployment of foreign trade basic foreign capital to actively provide service guidance.

According to the survey, the respective trade pilot zones focus on six aspects, and take multiple measures to implement policies accurately, that is, to take proactive actions to solve the “difficulty of protection”; use information technology to solve the “difficulty of doing things”; Solve the "difficulty in investment"; communicate with the supply and demand sides to solve the "difficulty in employment"; "blood transfusion" to save costs and reduce costs; solve the "financial difficulty"; provide legal services; In addition, many places have issued relevant documents that specifically support the development of free trade pilot zones during epidemic prevention and control.

Yuan Yuan pointed out that at present, the pragmatic measures of the Pilot Free Trade Zone have responded to the demands of enterprises, solved the "urgent need" of the enterprises, and promoted the resumption of production and orderly production with positive results. According to relevant surveys in various regions, as of noon today, except for Hubei, the resumption rate of 17 enterprises above designated size in the free trade zone is about 90%, and among 55 districts, the rate of return to work is above or close to 100%.