Measures for Accelerating the Integrated Development of Domestic and Foreign Trade

Accelerating the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade is an intrinsic requirement for building a new development pattern and promoting high-quality development. It plays an important role in promoting economic growth, expanding domestic demand, and shoring up the confidence of enterprises. In order to implement the decisions and plans of the Party Central Committee and the State Council and accelerate the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade, the following measures are proposed.

1. Promote the integration of domestic and foreign trade rules and systems

(1) Benchmark domestic trade standards and foreign ones. Align the standards with those of internationally advanced level by establishing and improving the international standards tracking and adoption mechanism, transforming a batch of advanced and applicable international standards, and continuously improving the efficiency of standards adoption. Improve particularly the compilation of foreign language versions of standards in key fields such as bulk trade commodities, overseas contracted projects, intelligent connected vehicles, e-commerce, payment and settlement, etc., increase publicity and promotion efforts, and help enterprises reduce the institutional costs of market conversion. Improve the “Belt and Road” national standards information platform, further leverage the role of the “Technical Guidelines for Export Commodities”, and optimize domestic and international standards services. Promote national-level service industry standardization pilot projects (special commercial and trade circulation projects) and strengthen standard innovation.

(2) Promote the connection of domestic and foreign trade inspection and certification. Improve the functions of the assessment service trade facilitation information platform. Encourage inspection, testing and certification institutions to provide “one-stop” services. Promote international cooperation on inspection and quarantine electronic certificates with more countries. Deepen international cooperation in inspection, quarantine, certification and accreditation under the framework of the “Belt and Road” Initiative and the “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership” (RCEP). Promote the exchanges on testing and certification rules and mutual trust and recognition of results between the mainland China and Hong Kong and Macao regions, and promote “Bay Area Certification”. Encourage inspection and testing institutions that meet qualification requirements to participate in the inspection and acceptance of import and export commodities, and expand the scope of third-party inspection and testing results acceptance. Strengthen the publicity of policy on the green channel for compulsory product certification for export-to-domestic products.

(3) Promote the integration of domestic and foreign trade supervision. Efforts should be made to eliminate various forms of local protection and market segmentation, accelerate the construction of a unified national market, promote the smooth flow of domestic and foreign trade resources, and promote fair competition between domestic and foreign-funded enterprises. Explore and improve the emergency mechanism to ensure the supply of shortage drugs, establish a system for the emergency use of medical devices, and facilitate the rapid entry of medicine, medical devices and other commodities into the domestic market in the event of natural disasters, public health incidents and other emergencies. Simplify import procedures for food and medicine used in food processing, and support the sales of imported exhibits with mature supervision and strong domestic demand in China.

(4) Promote domestic and foreign trade products to be of the same product line, standard and quality. Optimize the identification method of products of the same product line, same standard and same quality (hereinafter referred to as “same three”), encourage enterprises to declare that their products meet the requirements of “same three” or entrust third-party organizations for certification, encourage all parties to accept the certification result, and promote “same three” enterprise and products.

2. Promote the connection of domestic and foreign trade market channels

(5) Support foreign trade enterprises to expand the domestic market. Organize and carry out a series of activities to expand domestic sales of high-quality foreign trade products, strengthen market matchmaking and promotion, encourage centralized procurement, and support high-quality foreign trade products to enter e-commerce platforms, shopping malls and supermarkets, pedestrian streets in business districts, factory discount stores, and commodity trading markets.

(6) Support domestic trade enterprises to expand international markets. Strengthen the publicity and business training of new foreign trade formats, patterns and related policies, and support domestic trade enterprises to use cross-border e-commerce, market procurement and other methods to expand international markets. Promote high-quality implementation of free trade agreements such as RCEP, and expand the international development of enterprises.

(7) Give full play to the communication and matchmaking role of the platform. Give full play to the role of exhibitions such as the China International Import Expo, China Import and Export Fair, and China International Fair for Trade in Services, develop a number of domestic and foreign trade exhibitions, and promote the docking of domestic and international market supply and procurement. Cultivate a batch of trading markets for integrated domestic and foreign products, improve domestic and international marketing networks, strengthen production services, logistics distribution, brand cultivation and other functions, and promote the connection between domestic and international markets. Promote the quality improvement of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, and encourage domestic and foreign trade enterprises to develop their cross-border businesses by using the cooperation zones as a platform.

3. Optimize the integrated development environment for domestic and foreign trade

(8) Strengthen intellectual property protection. Strengthen the protection of trademark rights and patent rights of foreign trade companies with a focus on clothing, shoes and hats, home decoration, and household appliances by launching special projects to crack down on infringement and counterfeiting. Require the e-commerce platforms to take on their responsibilities for reviewing the qualifications and products of online e-commerce operators, improve the complaint and reporting handling policy, and correct and stop online infringements in time.

(9) Improve the domestic and foreign trade credit system. Give full play to the role of the national credit information sharing platform, promote the sharing and application of enterprise credit information, and help enterprises obtain more credit support. Domestic and foreign trade enterprises are encouraged to use credit reports, insurance, factoring and other credit tools to prevent market sales risks. Enable e-commerce platforms, industrial clusters, etc. to carry out pilot projects for credit system construction to create a credit environment that is conducive to smooth domestic and international markets.

(10) Improve logistics convenience. Strengthen cross-border transportation cooperation with overseas ports, and encourage shipping companies to expand the scope of cross-border transportation of domestic and foreign trade goods based on market-oriented principles. Accelerate the development of rail-water combined transport at coastal and inland river ports, and expand the scope of domestic and international routes and transportation services at major ports. Support qualified enterprises to carry out domestic and foreign trade container to transport on the same ship, and promote the two-way import and export operation model of foreign trade domestic branch lines of containers. Accelerate the construction of cross-border logistics infrastructure, and support the construction of global and regional international postal and express delivery hubs in key cities.

(11) Strengthen talent support for domestic and foreign trade. Strengthen the construction of majors related to the domestic and foreign trade integration, release a series of teaching standards, and create a number of core courses, high-quality teaching materials and practical projects. Support the development of domestic and foreign trade practical and skills training, and build a talent exchange and docking platform that integrates online and offline domestic and foreign trade.

4. Accelerate the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade in key areas

(12) Deepen the pilot program of domestic and foreign trade integration. Give pilot areas greater autonomy in reform and innovation, accelerate the integration of international high-standard economic and trade rules, promote the connection of domestic and foreign trade rules and systems, and replicate and promote a number of innovative experiences and typical cases. Give better play to the demonstration and leading role of open platforms such as free trade pilot zones, national-level new zones, national-level economic and technological development zones, and comprehensive bonded zones, and encourage greater reform and innovation related to the domestic and foreign trade integration.

(13) Cultivate enterprises integrating domestic and foreign trade. Cultivate a group of leading enterprises with international competitiveness that pay equal attention to domestic and foreign trade, enhance integration and allocation capabilities of global resources, and support core enterprises to drive other upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain to collaboratively explore domestic and international markets. Build a high-quality development base for international trade of agriculture, and cultivate and expand integrated domestic and foreign trade for agricultural enterprises. Support Taiwan-funded, Hong Kong and Macao enterprises to expand into the mainland market. Increase assistance and relief efforts for enterprises affected by unreasonable foreign trade restrictions, and support their integrated domestic and foreign trade operations.

(14) Cultivate industrial clusters for the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade. Cultivate and expand a number of industrial clusters for the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade in key areas. Promote the construction of commercial science and technology innovation centers, and promote the in-depth integration of the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and domestic and foreign trade-related industries. Promote the development of the “cross-border e-commerce + industrial belt” model and encourage more traditional industries to expand into overseas markets. Lead the transfer of industries to the central and western and northeastern regions, improve the integrated development level of domestic and foreign trade in the central and western regions, and support specialty industries in border areas to better connect domestic and international markets.

(15) Accelerate the construction of domestic and foreign trade brands. Launch the “Thousands of Enterprises in Hundreds of Cities” trademark and brand value enhancement project, promote the construction of national quality brand improvement demonstration zones, support the development of regional brands, and develop public brands of green, organic, geographical indications, and famous, special and high-quality new agricultural products. Support domestic and foreign trade enterprises in cultivating their own brands, encourage foreign trade OEM enterprises to cooperate with domestic brands, support circulation enterprises and platform enterprises in developing their own brands, and carry out brand collaboration with manufacturing enterprises. Encourage the development of reverse customization (C2M). Cultivate a number of discount stores for brands with Chinese characteristics. Build a new consumer brand incubation base to  enhance the vitality of brand incubation and innovation in the field of domestic and foreign trade. Increase the overseas publicity of Chinese brands and encourage time-honored brands to enter the international market. Cultivate demonstration enterprises with intellectual property advantages, support enterprises to leverage the effects of patents, trademarks and other types of intellectual property combinations to enhance their overall competitiveness.

5. Increase fiscal and financial support

(16) Implement relevant financial support policies. Under the premise of complying with WTO rules, existing central and local fiscal funding channels such as special funds for foreign trade and economic development shall be fully utilized to actively support the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade. Allow local governments to issue special bonds to support the construction of national logistics hubs and other logistics infrastructure in line with the investment fields and project conditions, and smoothly handle the distribution and transportation of domestic and foreign trade commodities.

(17) Give better play to the role of credit insurance. Strengthen the coordination of export credit insurance and domestic trade credit insurance, increase comprehensive support for integrated domestic and foreign trade credit insurance in accordance with market-oriented principles, and optimize underwriting and claims settlement conditions. Encourage insurance institutions to carry out credit insurance business for domestic trade, and enhance their credit insurance underwriting capabilities for domestic trade through co-insurance, reinsurance and other forms on the premise of legal compliance. Encourage qualified local governments to support domestic trade credit insurance for integrated domestic and foreign trade enterprises in a market-oriented manner.

(18) Increase financial support. Make full use of the national integrated financing credit service platform network and the national industry-finance cooperation platform to strengthen the service capabilities of financial institutions for domestic and foreign trade enterprises. On the premise of legal compliance, financial institutions are encouraged to provide financial products and services based on accounts receivable, inventory, warehouse receipts, orders, insurance applications, etc., and standardize the development of supply chain finance. Promote the pilot policies for cross-border financing facilitation. Expand the pilot scope of the integrated domestic and foreign currency bank settlement account system. Support more qualified payment institutions and banks to provide foreign exchange settlement services for new businesses such as cross-border e-commerce.

Under the guidance of “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”, each locality and department shall fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, resolutely implement the decisions and plans of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, actively promote the implementation of various policies and measures according to the division of labor, and overcome any obstacles in the integration of domestic and foreign trade in order to help enterprises smoothly switch between domestic and international markets and achieve substantial breakthroughs as soon as possible. All local people's governments throughout the country must improve working mechanisms, optimize public services, introduce supporting policies based on local conditions, and vigorously promote the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade in the region. The Ministry of Commerce must work with relevant departments to closely track and analyze changes in the situation, give full play to the role of relevant work coordination mechanisms, provide more coordination, supervision and guidance to ensure that various policies and measures are implemented in place, and timely summarize and promote precious experiences and practices from various places.

This translation is for communication purposes only, and is not a reference of policy.