We will promote innovation and upgrading of foreign trade industries and supply chains

Source: China Trade News Author: Our reporter Wang Man 2024-03-28 09:01:33

On March 26, at the press conference of the State Office for New Affairs, Guo Tingting, Vice Minister of Commerce, introduced that this year, we should make every effort to achieve the task goal of "quality improvement and stable quantity" of foreign trade, and the key direction of work is to cultivate new driving forces, expand new growth points, promote the innovation and upgrading of foreign trade industry and supply chain, and deepen cooperation with trading partners to add impetus to international trade and global economic growth.

Wang Lingjun, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, said that this year, China's foreign trade has achieved a "good start." In the first two months of this year, imports and exports reached 6.61 trillion yuan, a record high for the same period, which is basically equivalent to the total annual foreign trade value of China 20 years ago, and two months is equivalent to one year. Exports increased by 10.3% and imports increased by 6.7%. This not only reflects the sustained recovery of China's economic development, but also provides broad market space and cooperation opportunities for enterprises of all countries.

The first two months of import and export performance bright spots. First of all, it is reflected in the "three optimizations" : the optimization of the market pattern, the acceleration of the development of emerging markets, and the good performance of traditional markets; The layout of regional opening-up was improved. Imports and exports of nine border provinces and autonomous regions to neighboring countries increased by 25.4 percent. The product structure has been optimized, traditional superior products have gained new vitality, and new quality and productivity have spawned new driving forces, effectively consolidating the basic plate of foreign trade. Secondly, the number of foreign trade business entities increased by more than 40,000 year on year, and the China Customs trade climate survey shows that the confidence of foreign trade enterprises continues to increase.

The impetus for a good start in foreign trade comes from many sources. In the first two months, exports of high-end machine tools, ships and Marine engineering equipment, and aerospace equipment increased by 34.5%, 61.3%, and 17.7%, respectively. New brands breed new vitality, "domestic brand" is widely popular overseas, the first two months, the export of China's own brand products increased by 14.3%, 4 percentage points higher than the overall; In the first two months, the import and export of cross-border e-commerce increased by nearly 10%, and the export of market procurement increased by 15.9%. In the first two months, the import and export of 22 pilot free trade zones increased by 11.7 percent, among which the import and export growth of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Hebei pilot free trade zones exceeded 30 percent. The construction of Hainan Free Trade Port continued to advance, and the import and export volume increased by more than 20% in the first two months.

The World Bank expects global trade to grow at only half the average rate of the decade before the pandemic. Talking about the future situation of China's foreign trade, Guo Tingting said that at present, China's foreign trade has a good foundation, strong resilience and full of vitality. Vertically, it has continued the growth trend since October last year, and the scale has reached a record high in the same period. Recently, WTO Director-General Iweala said that the growth rate of global trade in 2024 May be less than the previously expected 3.3%. In contrast, China's foreign trade performance is generally good.

In order to achieve the goal of "promoting the quality improvement and stable quantity of foreign trade" proposed in the "Government Work Report", Guo Tingting said that efforts are mainly made from the following three aspects:

First, to deepen international cooperation in the foreign trade supply chain, we will focus on the whole process of the supply chain, and deepen the whole chain and systematic cooperation from raw materials, semi-finished products to finished products with willing trading partners. We should adhere to the general direction of economic globalization and build mutually beneficial and win-win trade partnerships in light of the needs of industrial development of various countries. At the same time, opening up China's big market to the world will provide opportunities for relevant products from other countries to enter China and enhance the development momentum of all countries. Focusing on processing trade, focusing on the two keywords of "upgrading" and "gradient transfer", we will strive to optimize the industrial chain and enhance the value chain, implement various policies and measures to improve the development level of processing trade, promote the healthy development of new business formats such as bonded maintenance, and promote the landing of a new batch of bonded maintenance pilot projects, and make good use of the processing trade online docking platform. Strengthen industrial exchanges and cooperation, and cultivate high-quality gradient transfer carriers.

Second, promote the digital and green development of trade. In terms of trade digitalization, we will accelerate the promotion and application of electronic trade documents by relying on platforms such as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Global Trade Digitalization Pilot Zone, Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, and foreign Trade transformation and Upgrading Base, as well as pilot projects in Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen and other places. In subsequent FTA negotiations, the inclusion of relevant provisions for paperless trade and electronic trade documents will be actively promoted. In terms of green trade development, it will actively guide the green and low-carbon coordinated transformation of foreign trade supply chains, build a public service platform for green trade development, support enterprises to research and develop various green and low-carbon products, consolidate and enhance the export competitiveness of competitive products, support green ships to explore the international market, and expand international economic and trade cooperation in the green field.

Third, we will promote the development of new forms of foreign trade. We will expand cross-border e-commerce exports, continue to improve supporting policies, solidly promote the construction of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot areas, organize special actions such as brand cultivation, organize special training, strengthen capacity building, and support foreign trade enterprises to expand sales channels and cultivate their own brands through cross-border e-commerce. At the same time, we will continue to improve the layout of overseas warehouses. Overseas warehouse is a new type of foreign trade infrastructure. At present, there are more than 2,500 overseas warehouses. We will support foreign trade enterprises and logistics enterprises to make good use of these overseas warehouse resources, improve the level of specialization, scale, and intelligence, so that more high-quality Chinese products can reach overseas consumers more conveniently.

Responsible Editor: Ge Yan