Create a market-oriented and legalized international port business environment. In the past ten years, the import and export of goods in China has increased by 14.7 trillion yuan.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has accelerated the construction of a new open economic system and made historic achievements in foreign trade development, which not only reflects the expansion in quantity, but also shows the improvement in quality. According to the unified deployment of the General Administration of Customs, the national customs focused on serving the overall economic and social development of the country, strengthened supervision and optimization services, and continued to create a market-oriented and legalized international port business environment, which promoted the high-quality development of foreign trade and greatly improved the level of cross-border trade facilitation.

The data recently obtained by the reporter from the General Administration of Customs shows that in the past ten years, the import and export volume of China’s goods trade has reached record highs, from 24.4 trillion yuan in 2012 to 39.1 trillion yuan last year, with an increase of 14.7 trillion yuan, close to the total import and export value in 2009; The international market share increased from 10.4% in 2012 to 13.5% last year, and the position of the world’s largest country in goods trade was further consolidated.

In the past ten years, the high-quality development of China’s foreign trade has continued to advance, the number of foreign trade business entities has increased by 1.7 times, the "circle of friends" of foreign trade has continued to expand, and trade with countries along the Belt and Road has continued to deepen and flow smoothly.

In the past ten years, the national customs has focused on customs clearance facilitation and issued a series of policies and measures, which has greatly improved the level of cross-border trade facilitation. The number of import and export supervision documents has been reduced from 86 to 41, and the overall customs clearance time has been reduced by more than half in four years.

Structural optimization of foreign trade with rising quality and quantity.

Wang Lingxun, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, said that in the past ten years, the high-quality development of China’s foreign trade was mainly reflected in the simultaneous improvement of quantity and quality and structural optimization.

The structure of export commodities is more optimized, and mechanical and electrical products play the leading role. In 2021, China exported 21.73 trillion yuan, of which mobile phones, computers, integrated circuits and other mechanical and electrical products accounted for 12.83 trillion yuan, nearly 60%; Labor-intensive products such as clothing, shoes and hats are only 3.94 trillion yuan, accounting for 18.1%. The transformation and upgrading of China’s leading export industries from traditional labor-intensive products to high-tech industries fully reflects the continuous improvement of the quality, grade and added value of export products.

The scale of imports is constantly expanding and international economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial and win-win. In 2021, China imported 17.37 trillion yuan, an increase of 51.2% compared with 2012. China is the second largest importer in the world, and its imports of advanced technology and equipment, key components and high-quality consumer goods are constantly expanding.

"The continuous increase in the scale of China’s trade in goods fully demonstrates that China is not only a’ world factory’ but also a’ world market’. While providing the global market with inexpensive and dazzling goods, it also provides countries with broader opportunities for China market development." Wang Lingxun said.

The diversified development of trading partners has made the international market layout more reasonable. China’s traditional market trading partners, such as the European Union, the United States, Japan and South Korea, have a solid position, and the above trading partners will account for 38.3% of China’s foreign trade in 2021. At the same time, actively explore emerging markets such as ASEAN, Africa and Latin America, and the proportion of imports and exports with the above-mentioned trading partners increased from 22.2% in 2012 to 26.2% in 2021. Among them, ASEAN has continuously become China’s largest trading partner in the past two years. It is noteworthy that the scale of trade between China and countries along the Belt and Road has been expanding, and the proportion of China’s total foreign trade has increased from 25% in 2013 to 29.7% in 2021.

The number of foreign trade enterprises is increasing rapidly, and the vitality of market players is competing with generate. In 2021, the number of enterprises with import and export performance in China reached 567,000, including 476,000 private enterprises and 82,000 foreign-invested enterprises. From the perspective of import and export scale, private enterprises became the largest foreign trade subject in China in 2019, and the import and export value accounted for 48.6% in 2021. In the past ten years, China has continuously optimized the port business environment, increased support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and created a good environment for all kinds of market players to compete for development, providing confidence and confidence for enterprises to explore new markets and optimize the global market layout.

The new kinetic energy of foreign trade development is constantly stimulated, and the new advantages of competition are accelerated. The platform for opening to the outside world has played an obvious role. In 2021, the import and export of China’s comprehensive bonded zone, free trade pilot zone and Hainan Free Trade Port increased by 23.8%, 26.4% and 57.7% respectively. In terms of emerging trade formats, the scale of cross-border e-commerce and market procurement in China has expanded rapidly. In 2021, the import and export scale of cross-border e-commerce in China reached 1.92 trillion yuan, an increase of 18.6%.

The level of trade facilitation has greatly improved.

"The gap between us in overseas markets and our competitors in Europe and the United States’ traditional biomedical research and development powers lies in the lack of timeliness. If the import and export approval time is shorter, it will greatly speed up our development." In June this year, Xie Liangzhi, the chairman of Beijing Yiqiao Shenzhou Technology Co., Ltd., was still worried about the approval process for the import and export of special items for enterprises.

After learning about the situation, the leaders of Beijing Customs took the lead in contacting enterprises and implementing the "problem clearing" mechanism. Relevant departments conducted in-depth research and made precise policies, and finally opened intelligent approval for enterprises, including all the more than 60,000 kinds of special items that enterprises mainly engaged in. Now, the approval time has been upgraded from the previous three working days to the second release.

The business environment is of great importance. In Wang Lingxun’s view, in the past ten years, the customs has focused on customs clearance facilitation, and has made great achievements for a long time. It has issued a series of policies and measures and adopted a series of hard measures to continuously optimize the business environment at ports, and the level of cross-border trade facilitation has been greatly improved.

Promote decentralization and decentralization. The customs has made great efforts to cancel administrative licensing items, and the number of regulatory documents for import and export links has been reduced from 86 to 41. Up to now, only 10 administrative licensing items have been retained. At the same time, improve the online processing platform for customs administrative examination and approval, and make it more convenient for enterprises to go through the formalities. Vigorously promote the "double random and open" supervision, covering 28 administrative law enforcement inspection items of the customs.

Carry out special actions to facilitate cross-border trade. Press time, reduce documents, reduce costs, and create a market-oriented legal and international port business environment. In 2021, the overall customs clearance time for imports was 32.97 hours, which was reduced by more than 60% compared with 2017, and that for exports was 1.23 hours, which was reduced by more than 80% compared with 2017. The overall customs clearance time was reduced by more than half in four years. The customs actively coordinated the relevant competent departments to streamline their certificates and basically realized online verification. The list and standards of the national port charge catalogue have been made public.

Comprehensively promote the "single window" of international trade, and basically meet the "one-stop" business handling needs of enterprises. This year, the Customs implemented the "streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services" reform, and instructed more than 90,000 enterprises to handle the filing of customs declaration units in a "multi-certificate integration" way. We will promote the integrated reform of all business areas and further improve the level of trade facilitation.

Deepen cooperation with "Belt and Road" countries

Recently, 45 tons of fresh Kenyan avocado arrived in Shanghai on the freighter "Pilca Asia". The Customs of Waigaoqiao Port Area, which belongs to Shanghai Customs, opened up a "green channel" at the first time to fully guarantee the rapid customs clearance of fresh avocados that meet the quarantine requirements. "The efficient and convenient customs clearance guarantee has strengthened our confidence in further expanding the import scale of agricultural products in Africa." Liu Mosu, general manager of Shanghai Niuguo Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. said.

The reporter learned that during the "One Belt, One Road" international cooperation summit held in Beijing in April 2019, Kenya signed a bilateral protocol with China, and in June of the same year, the General Administration of Customs issued an announcement to allow Kenya to import frozen avocados that meet quarantine requirements, making Kenya the first country in Africa to export avocados to China. In June this year, with the approval of the General Administration of Customs, Kenyan fresh avocados were also allowed to enter China.

"Since the Belt and Road Initiative was put forward, China’s trade with countries along the route has become increasingly close." Wang Lingxun gave a set of data: from 2013 to 2021, the total import and export value of China and countries along the route increased from 25% to 29.7% of China’s total foreign trade value; Last year, countries with trade volume exceeding 1 trillion yuan with China included Vietnam and Malaysia, and countries with trade volume exceeding 800 billion yuan included Thailand and Indonesia.

With regard to the high-quality development of the "Belt and Road", the Customs has continuously deepened its cooperation with the countries of the "Belt and Road" in trade security and customs clearance facilitation, focusing on the mutual recognition of "AEO", the "single window" cooperation and exchange of international trade in China, and the networking of certificates of origin. Of the 48 countries and regions that have signed AEO mutual recognition agreements with China, 32 are countries (regions) that have jointly built the Belt and Road Initiative. At the same time, we will continue to expand the import access of high-quality agricultural products and foods in the "Belt and Road" countries, and from 2013 to 2021, we will promote more than 100 kinds of high-quality agricultural products in countries along the route to realize trade with China. Promote AEO mutual recognition and cooperation. There are nearly 4,000 advanced customs certification enterprises in China, which enjoy the same customs clearance facilities abroad as at home, reducing trade costs and creating a good external environment for China’s foreign trade.

In addition, the customs actively practices the "three intelligences" cooperation concept of "smart customs, smart borders and smart access". Relying on "intelligence", high-tech drives system innovation, advocates customs intelligent governance, border collaborative governance and global cooperative governance, promotes the safe, stable and smooth international supply chain, and promotes the safety and convenience of global trade. Up to now, the national customs has launched more than 140 "Three Intelligences" pilot projects, many of which involve cooperation with foreign customs, mainly those in countries and regions along the Belt and Road. By improving the level of intelligence, the cost of customs clearance for enterprises is reduced and the time limit for customs clearance is improved. (Reporter Cai Yanhong)