China-Singapore Jingwei client, July 14th, in the first half of this year, China’s total import and export value of goods trade was 14.24 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.2%, a decrease of 1.7 percentage points from the previous five months. In June, imports and exports achieved positive growth both for the first time during the year, and the overall performance of foreign trade imports and exports in the first half of the year was better than expected. On the 14th, the State Council Office held a press conference on the import and export situation in the first half of 2020. Li Kuiwen, a spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs and the director of the Statistics and Analysis Department, made the introduction at the meeting.

  At the same time, the conference also discussed the main characteristics of China's foreign trade import and export in the first half of the year, the procurement situation from the United States under the first phase of the Sino-US economic and trade agreement, the foreign trade situation in the second half of the year, the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port, and how to support the development of cross-border e-commerce. Detailed interpretation of this question.

Source: Guoxin

【The first half of foreign trade import and export presents seven characteristics】

  Li Kuiwen introduced that in the first half of this year, my country's foreign trade imports and exports mainly have the following seven characteristics:

  First, foreign trade imports and exports in the first half of the year were better than expected. Secondly, the import and export of private enterprises are growing against the trend, and their role in the steady growth of foreign trade is more prominent. The third is the continued growth of imports and exports to ASEAN. ASEAN has become my country's largest trading partner. Fourth, the proportion of general trade imports and exports has increased, and the structure of trade methods has been continuously optimized. Fifth, the import and export of the central and western regions maintained growth, and the domestic regional distribution was more balanced. Sixth, the export of epidemic prevention materials and "house economy" products grew rapidly, and the decline in exports of electromechanical products and labor-intensive products was lower than the overall decline. Seventh, the import and export freight volume increased, and the import volume of major commodities and key agricultural products increased.

[China and the United States keep their promises and fulfill the agreement]

  Li Kuiwen responded to the first phase of the Sino-US economic and trade agreement. He introduced that in the first half of this year, the total value of Sino-US trade was 1.64 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.6%. Among them, exports to the US were 1.25 trillion yuan, down 8.1%, imports from the US were 395.62 billion yuan, down 1.5%, and trade surplus was 851.74 billion yuan, down 10.8%.

  Li Kuiwen said that China and the United States are important trading partners, and that Sino-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial and win-win. In the face of difficulties in responding to sudden outbreaks, they are still keeping their promises and fulfilling agreements. In the first half of the year, imports from the United States fell by 1.8 percentage points lower than overall imports, and the agreement is being implemented.

  Li Kuiwen emphasized that under the current situation, the healthy and stable development of bilateral economic and trade relations is very important for maintaining the economic stability of China and the United States and for promoting the global economy to get rid of the impact of the epidemic as soon as possible. China and the United States should create conditions and atmosphere to eliminate interference To jointly implement the first phase of China-US economic and trade agreement.

Li Kuiwen, Spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs and Director of the Statistical Analysis Department Source: Guoxin.com

[Talking about the foreign trade situation in the second half of the year: still complicated and severe]

  Regarding the trend of foreign trade in the second half of the year and the development of foreign trade throughout the year, Li Kuiwen emphasized that the uncertainties and instability factors facing my country's foreign trade development have increased significantly, and the impact of Sino-US economic and trade frictions has superimposed.

  Li Kuiwen emphasized, but it should also be noted that my country's foreign trade development has sufficient resilience and room for maneuver. With the continuous release of the effects of a series of foreign trade stabilization policies and measures, we are confident of stabilizing the basic foreign trade base and working hard to achieve import and export stabilization and quality improvement.

[Actively plan to study the customs supervision framework of the free trade port with Chinese characteristics]

  Li Kuiwen introduced that the General Administration of Customs strongly supports the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port, and specifically established a leading group to support Hainan’s comprehensive deepening of reform and opening up. Currently , it is actively planning to study the customs supervision framework of the free trade port with Chinese characteristics.

  On the other hand, the General Administration of Customs is working with relevant departments to study the list of zero-tariff policies for Hainan Free Trade Port, and to study the customs supervision methods for related goods. The General Administration of Customs and Hainan Province have initially studied and formed the "Hainan Free Trade Port Layout Plan".

  Li Kuiwen emphasized that the customs will follow the direction of the development of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics, fully draw on and absorb the advanced international management experience, further strengthen the reform and innovation of customs supervision, and make positive contributions to accelerate the construction of the Hainan free trade port.

[China’s coal imports increased by 12.7% in the first half]

  The peak period of summer energy consumption is coming, what measures will be considered to deal with the rise of domestic coal demand?

  Li Kuiwen said that since this year, with the spread of the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic in the world, market demand has weakened, and hedging risk aversion has spurred the price of commodities including crude oil and coal. As the speed of resumption of production and resumption of production by Chinese enterprises has accelerated, the import of energy raw materials such as coal has also increased significantly.

  According to Li Kuiwen, from January to June, my country imported 174 million tons of coal, an increase of 12.7%. The Customs will continue to optimize the customs clearance environment and continue to contribute to the improvement of trade convenience for the import of bulk commodities including coal.

[Cross-border e-commerce import and export growth 26.2%]

  In recent years, cross-border e-commerce has made great progress, especially since this year, cross-border e-commerce has played an important role in responding to the epidemic situation. What has the customs done to support the development of cross-border e-commerce, and how effective?

  According to Li Kuiwen, according to customs statistics, in the first half of this year, imports and exports of customs cross-border e-commerce monitoring platforms increased by 26.2%, of which exports increased by 28.7% and imports increased by 24.4%. The customs has improved the cross-border e-commerce statistical system and actively supported the orderly development of new trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce. Since this year, three major reform measures have been implemented:

  First, comprehensively promote the supervision measures for the return of cross-border e-commerce export goods. Explore the establishment of efficient, safe, and efficient cross-border e-commerce export return channels, solve the problem of "difficult returns" for cross-border e-commerce export goods, and fully support cross-border e-commerce export companies to "sell the world".

  The second is to conduct cross-border e-commerce business-to-business, that is, B2B export pilot. Additional "9710" and "9810" trade methods were established, and pilots were conducted in 10 customs such as Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Huangpu Customs, which opened a large-scale "selling global" cross-border New journey of e-commerce. As of the first week of the July 7 pilot, 10 pilot customs offices have issued a total of 266,000 votes for cross-border e-commerce B2B export declarations and declaration lists, with a value of 250 million yuan. Exported goods mainly include clothing, shoes and hats, small household appliances, Smart office furniture, mobile phone accessories, outdoor supplies, etc., the main export destination countries are Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia and other countries and regions.

  The third is to continue to take the initiative to work with the World Customs Organization and other international organizations to study and optimize cross-border e-commerce world trade rules, and further strengthen cooperation with the UPU, customs of other countries and regions on multilateral data sharing, and jointly build high-quality global-oriented Cross-border e-commerce delivery service network. (Sino-Singapore Jingwei app)