CRNTT:
Hello, Mr. Li, just now you mentioned that new foreign trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce and the market procurement trade flourished in 2020. Could you please give us a detailed account of the development of the new format and the foreign trade model over the past year and its role in promoting the quality and efficiency of China's foreign trade? Thank you.
Li Kuiwen:
Thank you for your question. Last year, under the influence of the pandemic, cross-border e-commerce as a new business format achieved rapid development. As an emerging format of trade, cross-border e-commerce has shown positive growth during the pandemic period, and has become an important force in stabilizing foreign trade. China Customs has been actively adapting to and promoting the development of cross-border e-commerce, continuously innovating and optimizing the regulatory system, and supporting the orderly development of new business forms like this. The measures we have taken are:
The first is to comprehensively promote supervision measures for the return of cross-border e-commerce export commodities, optimize e-commerce retail import return measures, solve the problem of difficult returns of export commodities, and fully support enterprises to sell goods to the world. We have also optimized cross-border e-commerce retail import return measures, helped businesses overcome the impact of logistics delays caused by the pandemic, and assisted to improve their after-sales service systems.
The second is to carry out innovative cross-border e-commerce B2B export pilot programs. We have added "9710" and "9810" trade methods, which refer to either direct export of goods from domestic businesses to overseas businesses by cross-border logistics based on their mutual deals over a cross-border e-commerce platform, or the export of goods by a domestic company to its overseas warehouse, from which the goods will be delivered to overseas buyers based on their deals over a cross-border e-commerce platform. We have now launched pilot programs in 22 directly-affiliated customs offices, including in Beijing. We have promoted cross-border e-commerce regulatory innovations from B2C to B2B, with supporting measures to facilitate customs clearance. Pilot enterprises can apply for clearance facilitation measures such as "one-off registration, streamlined declarations, and expedited clearance at lower costs, prior inspection, customs transit, and convenient return."
The third is to expand and clear cross-border e-commerce logistics channels. Affected by the pandemic, international flights were suspended and significantly reduced last year, and the traditional shipping capacity plummeted. The General Administration of Customs promptly issued ten measures to support the development of the China-Europe Railway Express and support its use to carry out cross-border e-commerce, mail, and other transportation services. During the pandemic, customs supported the postal department to open temporary entry and exit postal routes, creating a total of 15 temporary exit ports and 13 temporary entry ports, actively distributing inbound and outbound mail and cross-border e-commerce commodities, and striving to ensure the stability of industrial and supply chains.
The fourth is to make every effort to ensure the orderly customs clearance of cross-border e-commerce commodities during business peak periods such as the "Double 11 Shopping Day." In 2020, cross-border e-commerce grew rapidly, and the import and export lists checked and released through the customs cross-border e-commerce management platform hit 2.45 billion, surging by 63.3% year-on-year. During the "Double 11" period in 2020, 52.27 million import and export lists were processed through the customs cross-border e-commerce unified import and export system, an increase of 25.5% on the previous year. Meanwhile, the processing peak reached 3,407 items per second, an increase of 113.2% year-on-year. All indicators reached new highs.
The fifth is to perfect cross-border e-commerce statistics. In order to fully reflect the overall import and export situation of cross-border e-commerce, the General Administration of Customs has made full use of China's E-commerce Law and the definition of cross-border e-commerce by the World Customs Organization to explore and establish a cross-border e-commerce statistical system. According to preliminary statistics, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports in 2020 were 1.69 trillion yuan, an increase of 31.1%, of which exports made up 1.12 trillion yuan, an increase of 40.1%, and imports were 0.57 trillion yuan, an increase of 16.5%.
In the next step, customs will continue to focus on the development of new formats and the concerns of enterprises, continue to strengthen supervision, optimize services, further improve supervision and statistical systems, and continuously promote the high-quality development of new formats of cross-border e-commerce. Thanks.
