On 11 Jan. 2022, China’s General Office of the State Council issued the “Opinions on Further Stabilizing Foreign Trade by Adopting Cross-Cyclical Adjustment Measures” (hereinafter “the Opinions”, 关于做好跨周期调节进一步稳外贸的意见).
The Opinions points out that China’s foreign trade has faced increasing uncertainty and instability, which endanger its unstable foundation. China needs to further expand opening-up and take cross-cyclical adjustments in 2022.
The Opinions details 15 measures, including the following aspects.
- To support the development and use of overseas warehouses. Chinese cross-border e-commerce enterprises will build logistics centers in export destinations. Financial support will be provided by Chinese government-backed funds for guiding the innovative development of service trade.
- To promotethe imports of bulk commodities to ensure sufficient domestic supply.
- To ease the pressure in international logistics. China will encourage long-term contracts between foreign trade firms and shipping companies and support financial institutions in providing logistics-related funds to eligible small and micro-sized foreign trade enterprises.
- To seize the opportunity of the implementation ofthe Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECP) and enhanceregional cumulative effects in the origins.
- For enterprises exporting labor-intensive products such as textiles, clothing, furniture, footwear, plastics, luggage, toys, stone, ceramics, and high-quality agricultural products, China will consolidate export credit insurance in accordance with WTO rules, thus ensuring that these enterprises create sufficient domestic jobs.
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