National Business Daily:
The "stay-at-home economy" played an important role in last year's exports. Will this economy continue to drive export growth in 2021? In addition, what new measures will the General Administration of Customs (GACC) take next to promote the high-quality development of foreign trade? Thank you.
Li Kuiwen:
Thank you for your question. Regarding the first question, well, anti-epidemic supplies and products of the "stay-at-home economy" indeed constituted a significant driver for foreign trade development last year. Here, I would like to brief you on the latest data for the export of our anti-epidemic materials.
Statistics show that from March to the end of last year, the GACC cleared 438.5 billion yuan's worth of major anti-epidemic supplies. Regarding face masks, which attracted the most public attention, China exported 224.2 billion of them, with a value of 340 billion yuan, which is equivalent to providing nearly 40 face masks for every individual in the world outside of China. The exported masks included 65 billion surgical masks, nearly 30% of the total. We also exported 2.31 billion protective suits, including 773 million for medical use, 289 million pairs of goggles, and 2.92 billion pairs of surgical gloves. These products have provided a guarantee for medical personnel and other epidemic prevention and control workers to protect themselves.
In terms of medical equipment, we exported 271,000 ventilators, of which 212,000 were non-invasive, as well as 663,000 patient monitors and 119 million infrared thermometers. In addition, 1.08 billion novel coronavirus testing kits were exported, providing support for virus detection work.
We have taken the advantage of being the first country to fully resume work and production and the largest supplier of anti-epidemic materials worldwide. While meeting the domestic needs for epidemic prevention and control, we have exported anti-pandemic materials to most countries and regions in the world, giving strong support to the global fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.
Just now I introduced some data in regard to products of the "stay-at-home economy."
Customs offices also adopted some measures to supervise and serve the development of foreign trade. We have firmly implemented the arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and concentrated on ensuring stability on the six fronts (employment, finance, foreign trade, inbound investment, domestic investment, and market expectations) and guarantee in the six areas (jobs, daily living needs, food and energy, industrial and supply chains, the interests of market players, and the smooth functioning of grassroots government), coordinating the epidemic prevention and control at ports and the promotion of stable growth of foreign trade. In July, we held a national customs teleconference on stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment and launched 56 relevant measures to constantly facilitate customs clearance and ensure the smooth circulation of both domestic and international trade movements. There are four main aspects to these measures:
First, the business environment at ports has continuously been optimized. We have comprehensively taken measures such as the "two-step declaration," "advance declaration," "green channels," and non-physical presence of sender or receiver during customs cargo examination to improve customs clearance efficiency. Last December, the overall customs clearance time for imports and exports nationwide registered 34.91 hours and 1.78 hours, respectively, down by 64.2% and 85.5% from 2017.
Second, costs for enterprises have been further reduced. We have vigorously rolled out pilot Tariff Guarantee Insurance, with 3,509 participating businesses and guaranteed taxes reaching 377.6 billion yuan. Of the participants, nearly 80% were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), effectively mitigating difficulties in accessing affordable financing for various enterprises, especially SMEs.
Third, the development of new trade forms has been promoted. We have comprehensively advanced the regulatory measures for cross-border e-commerce product returns and launched trials for cross-border e-commerce business-to-business (B2B) exports. We encouraged the central, western, and northeast regions of China to carry out trials on market procurement trade. In 2020, imports and exports for China's cross-border e-commerce increased by 31.1%, and market procurement exports by 25.2%, becoming an important stabilizer for foreign trade.
Fourth, new pacesetters for opening-up have been developed. Vigorous support has been given to build the Hainan free-trade port and Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone. Between July 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020, the customs agencies supervised duty-free sales of 19.99 billion yuan's worth of goods, with a year-on-year growth of 191.6%. We have stepped up efforts to innovate customs supervision systems in pilot free-trade zones and replicate those measures proven to be effective in pilot free-trade zones elsewhere. We have promoted the implementation of global maintenance and remanufacturing operations in the comprehensive bonded zones. In 2020, the import and export volume of China's comprehensive bonded zones totaled 3.43 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.4%, and 15.5 percentage points higher than the overall growth of foreign trade.
In the next step, customs offices in the country will intensify efforts to implement the existing measures, strive to succeed in the "last mile" of policy implementation, and make every effort to promote the high-quality development of foreign trade and investment. Thank you.
