18 measures to support the stable scale and excellent structure of foreign trade Expert interpretation: strong operability

On April 4, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting to analyze and study the current economic situation and economic work. The meeting proposed that it is necessary to put attracting foreign investment in a more important position and stabilize the basic market of foreign trade and foreign investment.

Since the beginning of this year, China's foreign trade import and export have started steadily and improved month by month, and the year-on-year growth of import and export in the first quarter reached 4.8%. However, the current development of global trade will still be affected by multiple factors, and factors such as sluggish foreign demand and geopolitics may bring greater tests to the development of China's foreign trade.

In order to effectively respond to the current complicated foreign trade situation and promote the sustained, stable and healthy development of China's foreign trade, the General Office of the State Council recently issued the Opinions on Promoting the Stable Scale and Excellent Structure of Foreign Trade (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions").

The Opinions focus on the blockages, difficulties and pain points of foreign trade exports

Lin Jishuang, a professor at the Institute of International Service Economy of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, said in an interview with The Paper that the issuance of the "Opinions" is timely, pertinent and operable. In order to effectively respond to the severe and complex situation faced by foreign trade, the commerce department has successively carried out investigation and research in 18 provinces and cities across the country, analyzed the difficulties and demands encountered by foreign trade enterprises, and formulated relevant policies in conjunction with relevant departments, so as to improve the forward-looking and effective policies.

The "Opinions" identified the blocking points, difficulties and pain points of domestic and foreign trade exports at present and in the coming period, and made key responses to the severe challenges facing China's foreign trade at present, such as the shrinking demand in Europe and the United States, the serious decline in processing trade, the deterioration of the business environment of individual developed countries, and the many constraints and difficulties faced by foreign trade enterprises, such as formulating trade promotion guidelines for each country in key markets, promoting the gradient transfer of processing trade to the central and western regions and northeast China, and properly responding to unreasonable foreign trade restrictive measures.

In addition, the "Opinions" put forward three measures on how to stabilize the scale of foreign trade, such as striving to create trade opportunities, stabilizing trade in key products, and stabilizing foreign trade enterprises, and some measures have been steadily and effectively advanced.

"With the introduction of supporting policies and effective implementation by local governments at all levels in accordance with local conditions in accordance with the Opinions, we will definitely break through the various difficulties and obstacles encountered by the current foreign trade and successfully complete the annual goal of stable scale and excellent structure of foreign trade." Linji double name.

In particular, the Opinions emphasize the organization of trade promotion activities for countries such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). At present, ASEAN has become China's largest trading partner, and at the same time, in the international economic and trade field, China is also facing market competition with Southeast Asian countries and other countries, including capacity transfer caused by decoupling and chain breakage, friendly shore outsourcing, etc. What kind of competition and cooperation do China and RCEP countries face in economic and trade relations? Can RCEP become the main driving force for China's foreign trade growth?

Regarding the above questions from the surging news reporter, Lin Jishuang said that since the signing and entry into force of RCEP, the scale of trade between China and RCEP countries has continued to grow rapidly, especially ASEAN countries have become China's largest trading partners for several consecutive years. At present, the economic and trade relations between China and RCEP countries are far greater than competition. From the perspective of cooperation, China has obvious advantages in technology- and capital-intensive industrial chains such as electronic products, household appliances, automobiles (especially new energy vehicles), photovoltaics, and labor-intensive industrial chains such as textiles and garments, furniture, etc., and has extensive cooperation space with ASEAN and other countries and regions, which is conducive to the formation of industrial chain, supply chain and value chain coordination and development; From the perspective of competition, due to rising labor costs and tariffs imposed by the United States on China, there is indeed competition with ASEAN in the processing and manufacturing links of labor-intensive industries such as clothing, shoes and hats, which is also in line with market laws. With the continuous transformation and upgrading of innovation-driven industries and the high-quality development of foreign trade, the fields and space of industrial and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN and other RCEP countries will become more and more broad.

18 policies in five aspects to help enterprises solve order problems

Talking about the current situation of China's foreign trade import and export, Zhang Xiaotao, dean of the School of International Economics and Trade of the Central University of Finance and Economics, told the surging news reporter that this year's foreign trade situation is severe and complex, and the pressure is affected by both short-term factors of economic repair and structural and trend long-term factors. At present, the decline in foreign trade orders and insufficient demand are the main difficulties encountered.

He pointed out that the "Opinions" is based on the scientific study and judgment of the current and future foreign trade environment and situation on the basis of a "package" of policy measures, which is a set of policy combinations, through comprehensive policies, in an effort to effectively help enterprises solve order problems, take multiple measures at the same time, maintain and expand the external market.

Zhang Xiaotao said that the Opinions include 18 policies in five aspects:

In view of the inconvenience of entry and exit and the difficulty of exhibition negotiation, it is proposed to strengthen trade and promote market expansion. Including three policy measures, including optimizing the supply docking of key exhibitions, facilitating personnel exchanges, and strengthening market expansion service guarantees.

In view of the downward pressure of key foreign trade industries, it is proposed to stabilize and expand the scale of import and export of key products, attach importance to imports, and create conditions for the realization of two domestic and international markets and two kinds of resource linkage cycle. It includes four policy measures, including cultivating automobile export advantages, improving the level of international cooperation of large-scale complete equipment enterprises, and expanding advanced technology equipment.

In view of the difficult problems of foreign trade enterprises such as difficulty in financing and weak ability to cope with exchange rate fluctuation risks, it is proposed to increase fiscal and financial support. Including making full use of the central financial fund policy, increasing import and export credit support, strengthening financing support for small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises, better playing the role of export credit insurance, optimizing cross-border settlement services and other policy measures.

In view of the new trend and new changes in the development of foreign trade, it is proposed to accelerate the innovative development of foreign trade and maintain the stability of the foreign trade industry chain and supply chain. It includes five policy measures, including stabilizing and improving processing trade, improving border trade support policies, promoting trade digitalization, developing green trade, and promoting the healthy and sustainable innovation and development of cross-border e-commerce.

In view of the prominent demands of foreign trade enterprises in trade facilitation and responding to unreasonable restrictive measures against China at home and abroad, it is proposed to optimize the foreign trade development environment. It includes three measures: properly responding to unreasonable trade restrictions at home and abroad, improving the level of trade facilitation, and giving better play to the effectiveness of free trade agreements.

"Despite the current weakening of external demand and the decline in orders, we should see the competitiveness, resilience and advantages of China's foreign trade." Zhang Xiaotao said that historical experience shows that whenever it encounters external shocks and faces external pressure, the measures to stabilize foreign trade introduced by the government by judging the time and sizing up the situation and scientifically studying and judging have achieved good results.

There is no "retreat" problem in increasing support for foreign trade

The "Opinions" proposed that Chinese government departments, embassies and consulates stationed abroad should increase support for foreign trade, will this lead to foreign trade enterprises forming dependence on policy support? Can policies and measures to support foreign trade be continued?

In response to the above question from The Paper, Lu Gang, deputy director of the Foreign Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that the "Opinions" proposed that government departments and embassies and consulates abroad should increase their support for foreign trade, which is a trade promotion measure, intended to help foreign trade enterprises open up markets by strengthening government services, which is a common practice in the world, so there is no "decline" problem after the level of public services in this area is improved.

Lu Gang said that the implementation of the new round of policies to stabilize foreign trade has been very rapid. The "Opinions" proposed to study and optimize remote testing measures, and the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on the same day that all people coming to China can replace nucleic acid tests with antigen tests within 4 hours before boarding from April 29, and airlines will no longer check pre-boarding test certificates.

"The optimization of export product structure and market structure is playing a positive role in stabilizing exports."

Lu Gang believes that the resilience of China's foreign trade growth is still there. The "new three" foreign trade products represented by electric manned vehicles, solar cells and lithium batteries with high technology, high added value and leading the green transformation have a year-on-year growth rate of more than 60% in exports in the first quarter of this year, with a year-on-year increase of more than 1000 billion yuan, which has increased the overall growth rate of exports by 2 percentage points and become a real new growth point for China's exports.