China's foreign trade growth rate in the first seven months accelerated compared with that in the first half of the year. At the current juncture, how foreign trade policies can be further strengthened to stabilize the basic situation has drawn widespread attention from the market.
Experts believe that policies to stabilize foreign trade will be precisely implemented in aspects such as increasing financing support and optimizing export rebates. At the same time, high-level opening up will continue to be expanded, and open platforms such as free trade zones will continue to be built at a high level. These policies are a combination of short-term and long-term benefits and will help stabilize expectations and promote the transformation and upgrading of the foreign trade industry.
Increase financial support
For the next stage of the foreign trade situation, experts judge that there are still many uncertain factors in the external market, and foreign trade enterprises will continue to move forward under pressure. Therefore, more financing support should be provided to foreign trade enterprises that have been more severely impacted.
In fact, since the beginning of this year, multiple departments have introduced relevant financial policies to support the development of foreign trade. For instance, in May this year, the "Several Measures to Support Financing for Small and Micro Enterprises" issued by the Financial Supervision and Administration Commission and eight other departments proposed to increase financial support for small and micro enterprises in new forms of foreign trade such as cross-border e-commerce. Encourage the expansion of cross-border RMB "first account" expansion actions to meet the exchange rate hedging needs of small and micro foreign trade enterprises.
Financial institutions are making efforts to ensure the detailed implementation of policies, innovate service models, and assist foreign trade enterprises in securing orders, expanding markets, and stabilizing customers. For instance, the Bank of China has released the "Comprehensive Service Plan for Financial Support to Facilitate Cross-border Trade of the Bank of China", focusing on key customer groups such as multinational operating enterprises, small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises, and cross-border e-commerce, and providing customized and differentiated services.
Liu Xiangdong, deputy director of the Research and Information Department of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, believes that financial institutions can play a significant role in helping foreign trade enterprises that have been severely impacted to get through difficult times. Financial institutions should ensure the reasonable financing demands of foreign trade enterprises, optimize the exchange rate hedging services for foreign trade enterprises, help foreign trade enterprises maintain stable production and employment, give full play to the role of the financing coordination mechanism for small and micro enterprises, and promote the direct delivery of low-cost funds to small and micro foreign trade enterprises.
Zhao Zhongxiu, the president of the University of International Business and Economics, suggested that policy-based financial institutions could introduce new policy-based financial tools to provide targeted support to foreign trade enterprises. Promote banks to innovate the forms of support for foreign trade enterprises and formulate characteristic financial service plans on a case-by-case basis for each enterprise.
Optimize the export rebate policy
In addition to strengthening financial support, optimizing export rebate policies is also an important tool for stabilizing foreign trade. Experts say that a reasonable tax refund policy can help enhance the competitiveness of foreign trade enterprises, optimize the foreign trade structure, and promote the transformation and upgrading of the foreign trade industry.
Hu Jinglin, director of the State Taxation Administration, previously introduced that from 2021 to 2024, the average annual growth rate of export rebates processed by the national tax authorities was 6.6%. On a comparable basis, the growth rate further increased to 7.1% in the first half of this year, reflecting the strong resilience of China's foreign trade exports in a complex situation.
In recent years, China has been constantly improving the long-term service measures for export tax rebates, continuously carrying out precise push of tax rebate policies, optimizing the "intelligent self-check" service for tax rebate declaration, and implementing the policy of "no need to fill in" for declaration forms and the full online processing of declaration matters. The average processing time for normal export tax rebates for export enterprises across the country has been shortened to within six working days, with the average processing time for first and second-class export enterprises further compressed to within three working days.
LAN Qingxin, a professor at the National Institute of Open Economy Research of the University of International Business and Economics, said that the average tax refund time could be further shortened and a new model of "immediate refund upon issuance" could be explored and piloted. He suggested strengthening the direct connection and sharing of data among relevant departments, achieving information intercommunication and real-time updates, shortening the tax refund cycle, alleviating the pressure on enterprises to advance funds, and improving the efficiency of enterprises' fund utilization.
Build the free trade zone at a high level
To stabilize foreign trade, efforts should be made in terms of institutional reform, continuously promoting high-level opening up to the outside world, and constantly enhancing the competitiveness of the foreign trade industry. Among them, the key lies in building the free trade zone at a high level and better aligning it with high-standard international economic and trade rules.
Since the beginning of this year, a series of policies supporting the high-level construction of free trade zones have been successively implemented. For instance, the "Notice of The State Council on Doing a Good Job in Replicating and Promoting Pilot Measures for Fully Aligning Free Trade Zones with International High-Standard Economic and Trade Rules and Promoting High-level Institutional Opening-up" issued in July this year listed 77 pilot measures that need to be replicated and promoted. It covers aspects such as service trade, goods trade, digital trade, intellectual property protection, reform in the field of government procurement, reform of the "post-border" management system, and risk prevention and control.
Bai Ming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, said that the opening-up policies and measures of the free trade zones are expected to be strengthened. Free trade zones should, in light of their own resource endowments, strive to be new "pioneers" in expanding high-level opening up. LAN Qingxin suggested that the free trade zones continue to reduce restrictive measures, promptly summarize successful experiences and form replicable and scalable institutional innovation achievements.