Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council presided over an executive meeting of the State Council on July 10 to determine further measures to stabilize foreign trade in order to expand opening up to help stabilize growth and stabilize employment. The meeting pointed out that the key to implementing the requirements for stabilizing foreign trade is to further open up to the outside world and pay more attention to market-oriented reforms and the use of economic means to enhance the endogenous motivation of enterprises. The person in charge of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce explained the background and main content of the policy measures.
01Introduction background
Since last year, the external environment for foreign trade development has undergone profound changes. In accordance with the “Six Stability” work arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with various departments, promulgated a number of policies in a timely manner, and various localities have also actively introduced supporting measures to form a policy synergy, which has achieved good results in stabilizing confidence and stabilizing expectations. A questionnaire survey of exhibitors at the 125th Canton Fair shows that 77.6% of the companies are generally satisfied with the implementation of policies and measures.
The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to foreign trade work and require further opening to the outside world, creating a better policy environment for foreign trade enterprises, expanding import and export trade, promoting stable and improving quality of foreign trade, and enhancing export competitiveness. The Ministry of Commerce attaches great importance to it and has carried out a nationwide survey on "stabilizing foreign trade, stabilizing foreign investment and promoting consumption". Enterprises have reflected some difficulties and demands, such as fierce market competition, increasing trade frictions, rapid rise in overall costs, and financing difficulties and expensive financing. , The business environment needs to be further improved. At the same time, the good experience and good practices of some places to stabilize foreign trade have worked well and are worthy of national promotion. On the basis of a large number of investigations, we have worked with relevant departments and units to research and put forward proposals for further stabilizing foreign trade measures, which have been reviewed and approved by the executive meeting of the State Council.
02Main content
This round of policy measures adhere to the problem-oriented and precise implementation of policies, and strive to effectively solve the outstanding problems and demands reported by foreign trade enterprises. It has not only the intensive cultivation of effective policies in the past, but also the policies and measures introduced by some localities, as well as good experiences and good practices. The main contents include:
The first is to improve fiscal and taxation policies to help enterprises reduce burdens and increase efficiency. Continue to reduce the overall level of import tariffs and expand opening to the outside world. Increase the export tax rebate rate of some products to ensure that the average processing time for normal tax rebates at the end of 2019 is within 10 working days. Establish an early warning system and legal service mechanism. The catalog of imported technologies and products should be revised in due course, and enterprises are encouraged to actively expand the diversified import channels of key components and advanced technology and equipment.
The second is to strengthen financial support and reduce corporate financing costs. Maintain the basic stability of the RMB exchange rate at a reasonable and balanced level, and improve the convenience of RMB settlement. Encourage financial institutions to further expand the scale of export credit insurance policy financing in accordance with the actual needs of foreign trade enterprises, and continuously improve the quality and efficiency of foreign trade financial services. Expand foreign trade credit and guide various financial institutions to increase support for foreign trade financing and insurance for small and medium-sized enterprises. Give full play to the role of export credit insurance, expand coverage, reasonably reduce premiums, develop new products and new models, and research and propose special insurance types that meet the needs of enterprises.
The third is to innovate policy support measures to support the development of new business formats. Promulgated income tax assessment and collection methods adapted to the characteristics of cross-border e-commerce retail exports, and clearly not retroactive. Expansion of the pilot scope of the comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zone in due course Improve cross-border e-commerce statistics. Overall consideration will be given to the comprehensive bonded zone and outside the zone, to accelerate the implementation of compliant remanufacturing and global maintenance projects in the zone, and to promote a batch of "two ends outside" processing trade bonded maintenance projects to be tested outside the zone. Cultivate the third batch of import trade demonstration zones.
The fourth is to enhance trade facilitation and release the vitality of enterprises. Implement the publicity system of port charges catalogue list to prevent port charges from rebounding. Consolidate the effectiveness of reducing the overall customs clearance time. Further simplify the regulatory documents for import and export links.
03Next work
The top priority of the current foreign trade work is to implement policies and do a good job in stabilizing foreign trade. The Ministry of Commerce is working with various localities and departments to strengthen horizontal collaboration and vertical linkage to ensure that policies and measures are early and detailed, quickly implemented, and effective. At the same time, we should ask the company and the local government to reserve more precise and powerful policy measures and launch them in due course. The Ministry of Commerce will continue to promote a higher level of opening to the outside world, focus on stimulating the vitality of market players, boost the confidence of foreign trade enterprises, and strive to promote the stability and quality of foreign trade.
