Cross-border e-commerce has maintained strong growth, overseas warehouses have become an important platform, and market procurement and trade methods have developed rapidly.
Accelerate the development of new foreign trade formats and new models.

Expand the pilot scope of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive experimental zone, actively promote the development of overseas warehouses, and support qualified places to develop offshore trade … Around accelerating the development of new foreign trade formats and new models, the the State Council executive meeting held recently determined a series of measures. Relevant persons pointed out that the new format and new mode are the effective force of China’s foreign trade development and an important trend of international trade development. The policy measures put forward at this meeting involve a variety of new formats and new models, which are highly targeted and help to further promote the upgrading of foreign trade and cultivate new competitive advantages.

The scale of cross-border e-commerce has increased nearly 10 times in five years.

In recent years, new foreign trade formats and new modes in China have developed rapidly, and cross-border e-commerce is one of them. According to the data of the General Administration of Customs, in 2020, the import and export of cross-border e-commerce in China was 1.69 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.1%.

Since the beginning of this year, cross-border e-commerce has continued to maintain strong growth. Gao Feng, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in the first quarter of this year, the import and export of cross-border e-commerce reached 419.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 46.5%. There are the following new features: First, from the perspective of channels, cross-border e-commerce relies mainly on third-party platforms and gradually develops various new channels such as independent websites, social networking sites and search engine marketing. Second, from the main point of view, from the early individual and trade-oriented enterprises to the integration of trade-oriented enterprises and production enterprises, many production enterprises have changed from offline to online, and the digitalization level has improved significantly. Third, from the product point of view, from simply paying attention to cost performance to paying attention to brands, quality, standards and services, customized and personalized products have grown rapidly.

"In terms of scale and speed, the development of cross-border e-commerce has maintained a double-digit growth rate in recent years. The total scale has increased nearly 10 times in five years, and its proportion in foreign trade has continued to increase, especially under the impact of the epidemic, which has played an important role in stabilizing foreign trade." Zhang Jianping, director of the Regional Economic Cooperation Research Center of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, told this reporter that in order to further promote the development of cross-border e-commerce, it is necessary to continue to increase support, such as expanding the pilot scope of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive experimental zone, optimizing the list of cross-border e-commerce retail imports, facilitating the management of cross-border e-commerce import and export returns, and formulating guidelines for cross-border e-commerce intellectual property protection.

Improve the digital and intelligent level of overseas warehouses

In the process of cross-border e-commerce development, overseas warehouses are important support points. The data shows that there are more than 1,800 overseas warehouses of cross-border e-commerce in China, which are distributed in Russia, Japan, South Korea, the United States and other countries and regions, and the growth rate will reach 80% in 2020, covering an area of over 12 million square meters.

"Overseas warehouses have become a new type of foreign trade infrastructure supporting the development of cross-border e-commerce, and are an indispensable and important link and platform for the development of cross-border e-commerce. By setting up overseas warehouses in the destination country, and then transporting the goods in batches, sorting, packaging and transporting them according to the local market, logistics efficiency can be effectively improved and comprehensive operating costs can be reduced. Especially during the epidemic prevention and control period, the advantages of overseas warehouses are prominent, because there is sufficient stocking, and local logistics can deliver faster. " Zhang Jianping said.

The the State Council executive meeting proposed to encourage traditional foreign trade enterprises, cross-border e-commerce and logistics enterprises to participate in the construction of overseas warehouses, improve the digitalization and intelligence level of overseas warehouses, promote small and medium-sized enterprises to borrow ships to go out to sea, and drive domestic brands and dual-innovation products to expand the international market space.

Zhang Jianping said that a series of measures not only focus on promoting more market players to participate in the construction of overseas warehouses, but also emphasize the application of new technologies, which will provide more powerful support for the development of overseas warehouses. "With the increasing support from all sides, there is still a lot of room for the development of overseas warehouses in the future, especially the construction of a new generation of intelligent logistics system, which will make overseas warehouses operate more efficiently and play a more important role, thus promoting cross-border e-commerce. Make greater contributions to stabilizing foreign trade and promoting the transformation and upgrading of foreign trade."

Actively develop the way of market procurement trade.

Focusing on new formats and new models, the the State Council executive meeting proposed to actively develop market procurement trade methods.

As a new trade model created for foreign trade transactions of "multi-variety, multi-batch and small-batch" in specialized markets, market procurement trade has developed rapidly in many places in recent years. Recently, in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, the export scale of the pilot market procurement trade of Da Lang Wool Trade Center launched at the end of last year exceeded 10 billion yuan. Up to now, 1,487 pilot operators of procurement trade in Dongguan market have been registered, and the export commodities involve furniture, daily necessities, textiles and clothing, etc., and are exported to 141 countries and regions.

"Market procurement trade mode has the characteristics of fast customs clearance and convenience. Foreign trade operators can purchase goods in the approved market gathering area and go through export customs clearance procedures at the purchasing place. Accelerating the development of market procurement trade methods will help enhance the ability to collect goods and brand influence, and further tap the trade potential. " Zhang Jianping said.

In addition, the executive meeting of the State Council proposed to guide foreign trade comprehensive service enterprises to improve the efficiency and risk control level of centralized tax refund, support enterprises in comprehensive bonded areas and pilot free trade zones to carry out bonded maintenance, and support qualified places to develop offshore trade.

Zhang Jianping said: "Next, we should speed up the development of new foreign trade formats and new models, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, formulate relevant rules in digital trade, and further promote international exchanges and cooperation. In this process, the Pilot Free Trade Zone can play a more active role and continue to promote the high-quality development of foreign trade. " (Reporter Qiu Haifeng)