Strengthen confidence and stabilize the basic foreign trade (new theory)
——A closer look at the Chinese economy ②
In the "Ministerial Passage" of the two sessions this year, Zhong Shan, Minister of Commerce, stated that "the basic foreign trade and foreign investment must be able to stabilize" Some time ago, the General Administration of Customs released data showing that my country's import and export trade performance exceeded expectations in April. In April, my country’s total foreign trade import and export value was 2.5 trillion yuan, only a slight decrease of 0.7% over the same period last year. Among them, exports were 1.41 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.2% year-on-year. This shows that my country's export improvement trend has emerged, and the trade structure has been continuously optimized.
The new coronary pneumonia epidemic has affected world trade. Against this background, my country’s trade in April was better than expected, and it was extremely difficult. my country's exports rose slightly, mainly for three reasons. First, the pace of resumption of production and production of domestic enterprises has accelerated, and the backlog of orders during the epidemic prevention and control has been successively delivered; second, the diversification of the export market has initially taken shape, and exports to ASEAN and countries and regions along the "Belt and Road" have maintained rapid growth; third, to combat The export of medical materials in the epidemic increased. All these factors show that despite the various risks and challenges, my country's foreign trade has been resilient and has maintained its long-term development trend.
The performance of my country's imports and exports has effectively countered the so-called "decoupling" speeches on the clamor. The achievements and resilience of my country's import and export have won reputation and stimulated confidence, while helping to push the industrial chain, supply chain and value chain firmly in China. my country is the first in the world to control the epidemic situation, which creates conditions for resuming production and resuming business and resuming the market. At the same time, China has the most complete industrial system. For industries with long supply chains and complex ecosystems, staying in China is the best choice.
At the same time, we must be soberly aware of the future risk challenges. On the one hand, foreign trade companies still face many problems such as cancellation or extension of orders in hand, difficulty in signing new orders, and poor logistics; on the other hand, the spread of the epidemic has a huge impact on the global economy and trade, uncertainties and instability factors Significantly increased. Effectively responding to external shocks requires us to unswervingly advance the process of economic globalization and unswervingly expand opening up.
From the institutional level, it is necessary to create a business environment with an internationally advanced level that is more open, more convenient, and has a higher degree of law. Promote the transformation from cost advantage to comprehensive competitive advantage with talent, capital, infrastructure, technology, service and brand as the core, enhance China's comprehensive strength to participate in international competition, cultivate new advantages for opening to the outside world, and increase the attractiveness of foreign investment High-level expansion of opening up provides strong support. At the same time, adhere to bilateral, multilateral and regional sub-regional open cooperation, do a good job in the follow-up work of the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement", promote the negotiation of the China-EU Investment Agreement, the China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Zone and other agreements, and advance the construction of the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Zone; further Optimize the layout of the international market, consolidate and enhance China's share and influence in the global market.
From the perspective of trade structure, it is necessary to promote the high-quality development of foreign trade. To lay a solid foundation for the opening up of the service industry, it is necessary to further promote the liberalization and facilitation of service trade, establish a cross-border service trade negative list management system, enhance the leading role of the eastern region and the free trade pilot zone in expanding the opening of service trade, and accelerate the promotion Establish cooperation mechanisms for trade in services with more countries. At the same time, further increase the proportion of high value-added export products, promote the diversification of trading partners and reduce dependence on developed countries. In terms of industrial layout, it actively guides the reconstruction of the global industrial chain, supply chain and value chain, so that it can not only rely on huge domestic market demand, but also lead to the formation of a market-driven global industrial chain, or rely on the overall technological innovation capability and technical level. Form a production-driven global industrial chain.
(The author Gao Lingyun is a researcher at the Institute of World Economy and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)