How should the foreign trade industry turn challenges into opportunities?

During the Spring Festival of 2020, the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic spread rapidly across the country, and the whole country worked together to fight the epidemic. In order to avoid large-scale population movements and gatherings, prevention and control measures such as home isolation and extension of the Spring Festival holiday were adopted. The International Health Regulations declared that the new crown pneumonia epidemic constituted a "International Public Health Emergency" (PHEIC). Both domestic and foreign countries are paying close attention to this epidemic, and both global trade and China's foreign trade are facing changes.

 

Combining the two major research conclusions in the “Analysis of the Impact of the Epidemic on China’s Economy and Policy Recommendations” by Ren Zeping of the Evergrande Research Institute, the first is that the impact of the epidemic is even greater due to faster response and stronger efforts to fight the epidemic. Larger and shorter time, the impact of optimistic estimates is mainly in the first quarter, and the annual GDP growth rate is optimistically estimated to be about 5.4%; second, the three major policy combinations of epidemic response measures: prudent monetary policy + proactive fiscal policy + strong Reform and Opening. One can't help thinking about how to "open up" to face the impact of the epidemic under such an economic situation?

Based on the status quo of China's foreign trade development in 2019 and the various characteristics it has shown, this article combines global attitudes towards the epidemic to analyze how my country's trade import and export can turn challenges into opportunities.

 

 

1. Analysis of the development status of China's foreign trade industry in 2019

 

In 2019, under the complicated economic and political situation at home and abroad, China's foreign trade still maintains a good momentum of development. Regardless of the trade volume or trade efficiency, China’s trade pattern is showing a new pattern while maintaining its global position. For example, ASEAN has become China’s second largest trading partner, and well-known enterprises have become my country’s largest foreign trade for the first time. main body. From the perspective of trade efficiency, in recent years, the customs has vigorously reduced the overall customs clearance time, continuously deepened the reform of "delegating control and service", and continued to optimize the port business environment; in 2019, the overall customs clearance time of my country's imports and exports was reduced by 42.3% compared with 2018. 42.4%, the time was 41.4 hours and 4 hours respectively.

1) The total amount of foreign trade hits a record high, and the international status is improved

 

Since 2019, domestic and foreign risks and challenges have risen significantly. From China-US trade issues to China's Taiwan and China's Hong Kong issues, China's import and export trade has faced multiple challenges. At the same time, relevant government departments are constantly improving policies and measures, advancing trade structure optimization, and cultivating new formats and models of foreign trade. Enterprises have also actively expanded imports to jointly and steadily promote the high-quality development of China's trade.

 

Both the scale of trade and the international market share reached a new level. From the perspective of China's total annual import and export volume, the total volume of imports and exports fluctuated from 2013 to 2019. In 2019, China's total foreign trade reached a record high, reaching 31.54 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.4%. Among them, exports were 17.23 trillion yuan and imports were 14.31 trillion yuan. The scale of imports and exports, exports, and imports all hit record highs. From the perspective of international status, China's export share in the international market has steadily increased.

2) Trade surplus rebounded sharply

 

In 2019, my country's trade surplus expanded by 25.4%, and the trade surplus rebounded sharply. my country's economy has strong resilience, potential and room for maneuver. This resilience is also available in the field of foreign trade. At present, my country is the world’s largest manufacturing country with a complete industrial system. The output of more than 220 industrial products ranks first in the world. A sound industrial category and manufacturing infrastructure provide strong support for the development of foreign trade. China’s export situation better. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, my country's trade exports in 2019 were 17.23 trillion yuan, an increase of 5%; imports were 14.31 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.6%; the growth rate of exports was much higher than that of imports. In 2019, China's trade surplus was 2.92 trillion yuan, an increase of 25.4%.are increased by 0.3 percentage points from 2018 to 13.1% .

3) ASEAN has become China's second largest trading partner

 

The ranking of China's major trading partners has changed, and ASEAN has become China's second largest trading partner. In 2019, the largest trading partner is still the European Union, with imports and exports to the EU being 4.86 trillion yuan, an increase of 8%; imports and exports to ASEAN are 4.43 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.1%; imports and exports to the United States are 3.73 trillion yuan, a decrease of 10.7% ; The fourth largest trading partner is Japan, with 2.17 trillion yuan in imports and exports to Japan, an increase of 0.4%. In addition, China’s imports and exports to countries along the “Belt and Road” were 9.27 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.8%, which was 7.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate.

4) Private enterprises have become my country's largest foreign trade entity for the first time

 

With regard to supporting private enterprises, the customs has successively introduced a series of measures to support private enterprises in reducing burdens and increasing efficiency. Expand guarantee methods and introduce insurance companies to participate in customs tax guarantees to reduce the burden on enterprises, especially SMEs. Encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to innovate, and exempt import tax on relevant scientific research and technological development supplies from qualified public service demonstration platforms for small and medium-sized enterprises. China Customs has achieved mutual recognition of "Authorized Operators" (AEO) with 36 countries and regions, supporting private enterprises to enjoy various convenient measures provided by local customs, and serving enterprises to "go global." In 2019, the import and export of private enterprises was 13.48 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.4%, accounting for 42.7% of China's total foreign trade value, an increase of 3.1 percentage points from 2018. Among them, exports were 8.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 13%; imports were 4.58 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.4%.