How to ensure the stability and quality of foreign trade? The Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs and the People's Bank of China responded to hotspot concerns

Source: Xinhua

The report on the work of the Government this year sets out the target of ensuring stable and quality improvement in imports and exports, and The General Office of the State Council recently issued opinions on Ensuring stable and quality improvement in Foreign Trade. How about the implementation of relevant policies? How to ensure the stability and quality of foreign trade? Officials from the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs and the People's Bank of China made the remarks at a regular policy briefing of The State Council on Monday.

We will take measures to ensure stability and improve the quality of foreign trade

According to Wang Shouwen, vice minister of The Ministry of Commerce and deputy representative of international trade negotiations, the Ministry of Commerce, together with the National Development and Reform Commission and other 27 departments, has studied and introduced relevant policies to ensure the main body, order, market, confidence and performance of the contract. To be specific:

First, we will work to ensure smooth trade. Determine the list of key foreign trade enterprises and related logistics enterprises and personnel, and guarantee production, logistics, employment and other aspects; The transportation of foreign trade goods will be included in the scope of important materials, and the smooth transportation of freight and logistics will be ensured. Some important seaports and air ports will be unimpeded and dredged in an orderly manner.

Second, we will increase fiscal, tax and financial support. Expand the scale of short-term export credit insurance, further improve the coverage of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises, shorten the time to settle claims; We will support banking institutions not to blindly withhold, withdraw, cut off or pressure loans, and sort out a list of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises in urgent need of capital.

Third, we will help foreign trade enterprises seize orders and expand the market. Optimize and innovate online exhibition mode; Encourage small, medium and micro enterprises to conduct peer negotiations with foreign customers through online means; Strengthen the linkage and mutual promotion between the online Canton Fair and cross-border e-commerce platforms; Encourage innovative, green, high value-added products to explore the international market.

Fourth, we will keep foreign trade industrial and supply chains stable. Support the gradual relocation of labor-intensive foreign trade industries in China; We will support enterprises in carrying out bonded maintenance in comprehensive bonded zones, and explore pilot projects for the bonded remanufacturing of automobile engines and gearboxes.

Promote the transport of foreign trade goods to ensure smooth and smooth

It is the top priority to keep foreign trade stable. Seven of the world's top 10 container ports are Chinese, and despite the impact of the epidemic, China's operational and research capacity is still strong, Wang said.

Comprehensive operation division chief priests sea, introduced by the General Administration of Customs, the customs release expanding ocean and inland water transport ship "linkage" discharge, transit goods "from Hong Kong to confirm", further promote "the boat straight" imported goods and export goods "direct arrival at Hong Kong fashion" pilot, supports railway "fast-track", etc, to ensure the safety of the port clearance flow.

The General Administration of Customs recently issued 10 measures to improve the stability and quality of foreign trade in response to enterprises' demands for customs clearance of urgently needed goods, agricultural and food products, etc., making specific arrangements for improving the efficiency of inbound and outbound logistics, ensuring the smooth circulation of industrial chains and supply chains in key areas, and establishing and improving the long-term mechanism for serving enterprises.

High cost of shipping brings greater pressure to foreign trade enterprises. Wang Shouwen said that the Ministry of Commerce will organize relevant business associations to help small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises and large transport enterprises docking, directly arrange the supply and demand of shipping space connection, reduce the cost of enterprise shipping.

We will increase financial support for stabilizing foreign trade

Zhou Yu, head of the International department of the People's Bank of China, said at a briefing that the average interest rate of new loans issued by enterprises from January to April was 4.39 percent, down 0.22 percentage points from the level of the whole of last year and the lowest since the People's Bank of China began statistical records.

In April, the People's Bank of China, issued by safe article 23 financial help companies bail-out package of measures, which contains a lot of steady financial measures: foreign trade will be high quality enterprise trade facilitation of revenues and expenditures in foreign exchange policy promotion to the whole country, to develop a higher level of RMB settlement and facilitation and corporate debt and facilitation pilot lines, allowing a background in export trade settlement of internal foreign exchange loan to use...

"At present, the People's Bank of China is guiding its subordinate branches and financial institutions to come up with specific implementation plans to make these policies truly benefit foreign trade enterprises." Said et al.

The impact of exchange rate fluctuation on foreign trade enterprises is self-evident. Zhou yu said that relevant departments have coordinated efforts to guide financial institutions to provide more exchange rate risk management products for import and export enterprises, to help foreign trade enterprises avoid exchange rate risks and reduce hedging costs. At the same time, the foreign exchange transaction commission of some small, medium and micro enterprises will be reduced, the cost of foreign exchange hedging of enterprises will be reduced, and the occupation of foreign exchange hedging margin will be reduced.

Data show that from January to April, the scale of foreign exchange hedging of enterprises increased by 48% year-on-year, and the number of enterprises dealing with foreign exchange hedging business for the first time increased by nearly 10,000.

Zhou yu said the PBOC will continue to promote market-based exchange rate reform, enhance the flexibility of the RMB exchange rate, play the role of the exchange rate as an automatic stabilizer of macroeconomic adjustment and international payments, guide market players to establish the concept of "risk neutrality", and keep the RMB exchange rate basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level.

We will accelerate the development of cross-border e-commerce, improve its quality and efficiency

Cross-border e-commerce is in a window of innovation and development, which is also an important tool for promoting high-quality development of foreign trade. Li Xinggan, director-general of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out that with the changing situation of epidemic prevention and control in various countries, the factors driving the rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce and other new forms of business are also changing.

"This requires all new forms of foreign trade, including cross-border e-commerce, to further enhance innovation capacity and provide more personalized and convenient services to consumers of all countries." Li Xinggan said.

According to Li xinggan, moFCOM will focus on the pain points of the industry and solve common problems in the development of cross-border e-commerce. On the one hand, we will introduce policies and measures as soon as possible to facilitate the return and exchange of goods for cross-border e-commerce enterprises, support qualified cross-border e-commerce enterprises to apply for high-tech enterprises, optimize the tax refund process for overseas warehouses of cross-border e-commerce enterprises, and formulate guidelines on the protection of intellectual property rights for cross-border e-commerce enterprises. On the other hand, we will make solid progress in building comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce, accelerate the development of new forms of foreign trade, such as overseas warehousing and market procurement, and promote the interconnected and integrated development of cross-border e-commerce with other forms of business.

Responsible editor: Ge Yan