Economic Daily:

At present, the risk of world economic recession is on the ascent, the growth of external demand is slowing down, and the environment for the development of our foreign trade is complicated and challenging. What specific measures does CCPIT have in promoting the stable scale and optimized structure of foreign trade? Thank you.

Yu Jianlong:

Thank you for your question. The 20th CPC National Congress made comprehensive strategic plans for accelerating China’s transformation into a trader of quality. At present, with the weak recovery of the world economy, the shrinking external demand, and the intensifying geopolitical conflicts and protectionism, foreign trade enterprises are facing greater risks and challenges. We give full play to our functions of connecting government and enterprises, integrating internal and external sources, and ensuring stable supply and demand, using every possible means to help companies solve difficulties and expand markets, to contribute to promoting stable scale and optimal structure of foreign trade and accelerating China’s transformation into a trader of quality.

First, we have strengthened trade promotion. Trade promotion is the expertise of CCPIT. We continue the promotion and implementation of RCEP and other free trade agreements and guide enterprises to make full use of the preferential policies. According to statistics, the national trade promotion system held more than 200 forums and training sessions last year, benefiting hundreds of thousands of enterprises. This year we have further intensified our work. In the first five months, the number of certificates of origin, ATA carnets, and commercial certificates issued by the national trade promotion system has increased significantly year-on-year. We continue to strengthen the Internet Plus comprehensive services, promote the intelligent and convenient services of certificate of origin and ATA carnet, and at the same time intensify our efforts to hold training and seminars in various places.

Second, we have created a platform for trade and economic cooperation. Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the “Opinions on Promoting the Stable Scale and Optimum Structure of Foreign Trade ,” emphasizing the optimization of the supply and purchase dovetailing of key exhibitions, promoting the full recovery of domestic offline exhibitions, and requiring localities, trade promotion agencies, and business associations to further increase support for enterprises to participate in various overseas exhibitions, continue to cultivate self-organized exhibitions abroad and expand the scale of exhibitions. We focus on holding the first Chain Expo, global trade and investment promotion summit, and other activities to build more platforms for foreign trade enterprises to display and negotiate cooperation. Just as Mr. Ren said that the 2023 Global Trade and Investment Promotion Summit we held on May 24 made representatives of many foreign companies and business associations take this opportunity to communicate and negotiate with Chinese companies. Since the beginning of this year, the CCPIT has completed the approval of the first group of 519 applications for holding trade and economic exhibitions abroad and is reviewing the second group of more than 400 projects. We will hold a series of exhibitions for key global markets and industries.

Third, we have expanded our commercial legal services. CCPIT has a long history of providing commercial legal services with complete institutions and a wealth of talents. In recent years, we have further improved the full-chain, one-stop, international commercial legal service system and strengthened legal services such as international trade and economic arbitration, commercial mediation, and intellectual property protection. Through our online legal service platform, ctils.com, about 300,000 legal consultations have been provided for enterprises, and the difficulties encountered by enterprises in transnational operations have been answered in a timely manner. At the same time, we strengthened the construction of enterprises’ compliance and helped more than 5,000 enterprises investigate compliance risks in international operations.

Fourth, we have optimized the supply of public goods. We have compiled and issued foreign investment guides for 108 countries and specific legal guides for 104 countries so that enterprises can better understand the business environment in these countries. We released the International Intellectual Property Protection Index Report and the Global Economic and Trade Measures Index for the first time in the world and achieved remarkable results. We have improved the research and working mechanism for foreign trade enterprises, closely tracked the situation, and collected problems and appeals from various enterprises in a timely manner. Just as Mr. Ren Hongbin said that we have set up a special working group for foreign-invested enterprises to respond to and promote the resolution of more than 5,000 demands of foreign-invested enterprises in a timely manner. This work can also provide references for government departments to make decisions.

In the next step, we will continue to closely track the operation of foreign trade with the local governments and relevant departments, do a good job in studying and analyzing the situation, improve the service quality for enterprises, and take the first Chain Expo as a starting point to seize opportunities and expand markets for enterprises to contribute more to the consolidation of the economy. Thank you!