China to implement measures for promoting foreign trade - PingWest

China to implement measures for promoting foreign tradeCross-Border Ecommerce

China to implement measures for promoting foreign trade

Zijing Fu

posted on 6 hours ago

Ministry of Commerce says to support logistics, cross-border e-commerce and more.

China will increase fiscal and financial support for foreign trade companies, and include foreign trade goods as critical goods to ensure the efficiency of logistics, according to a Ministry of Commerce meeting on Wednesday.

China's foreign trade has been severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai, one of the country's main export hubs. From January to April this year, the growth rate of foreign trade imports and exports in China is 10.1% — a significant drop compared with the 38.7% growth rate in the same period last year. Decreased desire to consume and supply chain interruptions both contributed to the drop. “Overseas demand will be impacted by inflations and fragile recovery of the world economy. Domestically, logistics efficiency has declined, supply chains are not smooth, raw material prices have increased, which adds pressure to foreign trade companies,” says Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of MOC.

As Shanghai recovers, China is adopting measures that it believes will "push the forward button" for the country's economy to make up for the halt caused by the pandemic. Wang is confident that foreign trade growth will remain stable, “with the gradual recovery of daily lives and production in China, smoothing of logistics blockages,” and policy boosters.

The Ministry of Commerce will launch measures to make port operations and logistic chain more smooth and efficient for international trade-related cargo, as well as support micro, small, and middle-sized foreign trade enterprises. Qualified enterprises will be given loans, training on currency exchange, and tax rebates.

The measures will cover cross-border e-commerce merchants. “Cross-border e-commerce is now widely welcomed by consumers in various countries and is in the window of innovation and development,” says Li Xingqian, Director of the Department of Foreign Trade of the MOC.

China’s State Council has set up 132 cross-border e-commerce pilot zones across the country. In July last year, the General Office of the State Council issued opinions on accelerating the development of new business patterns and modes of foreign trade, empowering the cross-border e-commerce industry.

The ministry will launch initiatives to facilitate the return and exchange of cross-border e-commerce, support eligible enterprises to declare as high-tech enterprises, optimize the tax refund process, and protect intellectual property rights.

Building overseas warehouses was also mentioned as one of the measures to ensure logistic efficiency. “The Ministry is also studying specific initiatives to encourage diverse entities to build and optimize the layout of overseas warehouses, as well as improve the global service network,” says Li.

There are currently more than 2,000 companies in China that provide taxation, logistics, settlement and other outsourcing services for foreign trade businesses, per MOC. In the first quarter of this year, the import and export value of China's cross-border e-commerce reached 434.5 billion yuan, an increase of 0.5% YoY. Overseas warehouses have exceeded 16 million square meters, 90% of which are located in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Cover image by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash