Securities Times reporter Jiang Dan
"At present, the company's shipments from Shanghai Port have basically returned to normal, and they can ship almost every week." A staff member of a ceramic foreign trade enterprise in Liling, Hunan told a Securities Times reporter.
In May, as the national logistics and industrial chain supply chains were better repaired, the growth rate of import and export data also stabilized and rebounded.
Recently, in order to further help foreign trade enterprises to cope with the current difficulties and achieve high-quality development of foreign trade, policies and measures to stabilize foreign trade in various regions are still being introduced.
According to incomplete statistics from Securities Times reporters, since mid-to-late April, 17 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country have further refined their arrangements to support foreign trade to maintain stability and promote quality improvement.
Among them, optimizing the policy of resuming work and reaching production capacity, strengthening policy-based financial support, and giving full play to the "real money" guiding role of special funds for foreign trade and foreign investment have been mentioned more.
Ensure the stability of the foreign trade industry chain and supply chain
Since mid-to-late April, as of June 9, at least 17 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country have further refined arrangements to support foreign trade to maintain stability and promote quality improvement.
Among them, 5 proposed to optimize the policy of resumption of work and production, increase foreign trade credit, provide financing credit enhancement and discount interest, and give play to the guiding role of special funds for foreign trade and foreign investment; 4 proposed to strengthen policy-based financial support and improve the level of trade facilitation; 2 encouraged Advocate for ports and shipping companies to reduce or exempt related fees; some places have deployed work arrangements for diversifying into international markets and cultivating new growth points for foreign trade.
The "Opinions on Promoting the Stability and Quality Improvement of Foreign Trade" issued by the General Office of the State Council on May 26 made it clear that the list of key foreign trade enterprises and the list of relevant logistics enterprises and personnel will be determined to ensure production, logistics and employment, and help those affected by the epidemic as soon as possible. Foreign trade enterprises have resumed work and reached production capacity to ensure the stability of the foreign trade supply chain.
According to the reporter's statistics, many places have established a "white list" system for key enterprises to resume work and reach production.
As of June 9, 5 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have further made arrangements for accelerating the resumption of work and production for foreign trade enterprises.
Guangdong proposed to refine and implement the measures for "whitelist" enterprises to serve.
Actively implement provincial-ministerial linkages and regional mutual recognition, and collaboratively promote the resumption of production and production of industrial chain and supply chain enterprises.
Liaoning proposed to promote foreign trade enterprises to speed up the resumption of work and production, and support the opening of special freight charter lines from Liaoning to key countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The foreign trade in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions accounts for more than half of my country's total foreign trade.
Since the beginning of this year, the two regions have been repeatedly affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, which has impacted social production and life and dragged down the performance of foreign trade since February.
In May, as the national logistics and industrial chain supply chains were better repaired, the growth rate of import and export data also stabilized and rebounded.
Many experts interviewed by reporters believed that ensuring the normal operation of the industrial chain and supply chain is the basic condition for stabilizing foreign trade.
The executive meeting of the State Council held on June 8 pointed out that it is necessary to coordinate and solve difficulties such as resumption of production and project construction of foreign trade and foreign-invested enterprises.
Chen Bo, president of the Optics Valley Free Trade Research Institute, told the Securities Times reporter that Shanghai's foreign trade sector is currently recovering rapidly, and the foreign trade performance in June is expected to improve further.
Tax reduction and fee reduction for foreign trade enterprises will increase efficiency
Reducing the cost of foreign trade enterprises will help them relieve their burdens.
The State Council will implement phased implementation of tax rebates within 3 working days for enterprises with good export tax rebate credit, and study the phased reduction and exemption of port-related charges.
Both Shanghai and Guangdong have previously proposed to encourage port companies to reduce or exempt cargo storage fees for a specific period, encourage shipping companies to reduce or exempt demurrage fees for a specific period, and advocate port and shipping-related enterprises to reduce or exempt foreign trade import and export related logistics operation costs.
Looking ahead, tax cuts and fee reductions are expected to increase efficiency.
"These policy measures are equivalent to the 'talisman' of enterprises." Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, told the Securities Times reporter.
In addition to reducing taxes and fees, the guiding role of special funds for foreign trade and foreign investment has been brought into play in many places to stabilize foreign trade.
Liaoning provides discount support for bank loans incurred by foreign trade enterprises in improving production technology, improving production environment, purchasing equipment, purchasing raw materials, etc. at a rate not exceeding the latest one-year RMB one-year loan market quotation rate (LPR) announced by the People's Bank of China. The upper limit of interest discount for single-family enterprises is 2 million yuan, and priority is given to supporting enterprises that are more affected by the epidemic.
Heilongjiang clarifies that for enterprises engaged in import and export business in the cross-border e-commerce model, with an annual import and export volume of more than 10 million yuan (inclusive), the reward is 10,000 yuan for every 1 million yuan, and the maximum reward for a single enterprise is 1 million yuan.
In addition, Guangdong, Jilin, Liaoning, Fujian and other places proposed to expand the coverage of short-term export credit insurance.
Guangdong proposed to support more than 12,000 foreign trade enterprises throughout the year, expand the underwriting of the industrial chain, deepen the tripartite cooperation between banks and insurance companies, innovate policy financing products, and realize short-term insurance policy financing and credit increase of over 60 billion yuan.
Jilin proposes to reasonably reduce short-term export credit insurance rates.
Liaoning proposes to support small and micro foreign trade enterprises with exports of less than US$5 million to purchase specific export credit insurance.
Chen Bo said that the "most affordable" policy benefiting companies is to help them maintain a continuous flow of funds.
This can be achieved by providing financing and loan facilities, including loan extension, interest-free loans, etc., or by expediting tax rebates.
However, in general, the aforementioned measures are more general relief measures to help enterprises, and more targeted assistance measures are needed for different industries hit by the epidemic, such as employment subsidies, rent reductions and exemptions.