Photo: A staff member of the cross-border e-commerce company Sunny Express loads packages in Horgos, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 3, 2021. (Xinhua/Gu Yu)
BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China has seen sustained and rapid increases in cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) imports and exports in recent years.
In 2020, China's CBEC retail imports exceeded 100 billion yuan, becoming a new highlight in the development of foreign trade, reported People's Daily Sunday.
A circular recently issued by six Chinese government authorities clarified that China will expand the pilot programs of CBEC retail imports to all cities and regions where pilot free trade zones (FTZs), comprehensive CBEC pilot zones, comprehensive bonded zones, demonstration zones on import promotion, or bonded logistics centers (Type B) are situated.
The expansion of the pilot programs will facilitate the development of CBEC, marking a brighter development prospect for CBEC.
--CBEC becomes a new engine for China's high-quality development of foreign trade
CBEC has maintained double-digit growth in recent years,contributing significantly to the development of China's foreign trade, said Zhang Jianping, director of the Research Center for Regional Economic Cooperation of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of China's Ministry of Commerce.
Especially in 2020, CBEC, with its advantages in limitless time and space, low cost, and high efficiency, has become an important option for international trade and the pioneer of innovation and development of foreign trade. It played a positive role for foreign trade enterprises to cope with the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, Zhang added.
The first China Cross-border E-commerce Trade Fair was held in the city of Fuzhou in March 2021, involving 2,363 enterprises and 33 CBEC platforms globally. Incomplete statistics showed that the trade fair reached a total intended turnover of more than 3.5 billion U.S. dollars.
According to customs data, China's CBEC imports and exports reached 1.69 trillion yuan in 2020, increased by 31.1 percent year on year. CBEC is becoming a new engine for the country's high-quality development of foreign trade.
--Intensive support policies create good environment for CBEC's rapid development
The development of CBEC, as new business form of foreign trade, has received strong impetus from policy supports in China.
China announced to supervise CEBC retail imports as imported goods for personal use in 2016, and launched pilot programs for such supervision decision in 37 cities in the country in 2018, which are further expanded to 86 cities and the entire island of Hainan in 2020.
The pilot programs, without requirements for first import license, registration, or filing of goods, made customer clearance of imported goods easier and faster, leading to fast growths in CBEC retail imports.
Meanwhile, the risk prevention, control and regulation system has been gradually improved with effective regulation on the ongoing and post-operations, thus enabling it to be replicated and scaled up.
China approved the establishment of 46 comprehensive CBEC pilot zones in 2020, bringing the total comprehensive CBEC pilot zones to 105. The Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments, encourages innovations in services, business forms, and models in the comprehensive CBEC pilot zones, and supports the development of the whole chain of CBEC integrated design, production, marketing, trading, and after-sales service.
With the comprehensive CBEC pilot zones as the starting point, all regions have built industrial parks to attract leading enterprises to settle in and gather upstream and downstream enterprises in neighboring areas. So far, more than 330 industrial parks have been built in the comprehensive CBEC pilot zones, creating more than 3 million jobs.
In terms of customs clearance, the General Administration of Customs has launched innovative pilot projects on CBEC's business-to-business (B2B) exports, and spread the innovative achievements in CBEC regulation from business to customer(B2C) to B2B, with supporting measures to facilitate customs clearance. The pilot enterprises may apply such facilitation measures as one-time registration, one-point docking, priority in inspection, customs transfer, and easier return of goods.
In the context of the customs' pilot export regulation and the accelerated construction of comprehensive CBEC pilot zones all over the country, CBEC will continue to flourish under policy supports, injecting new vitality into the transformation and upgrading of China's foreign trade, said Zhang Jianping.
--Wide application of digital technologies urges upgrading of regulation
The wide application of digital technologies such as cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain in all aspects of cross-border trade has driven constant transformations and upgrades in CBEC.
The new digital business form of foreign trade, based on a full-link cross-border trade platform, has established an ecosystem that integrates manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, consumers, logistics, finance, and government regulatory authorities, according to Wang Xiaohong, deputy director of the information department of China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
It includes not only the circulation of cross-border commodities, but also related supporting services such as logistics, finance, information, payment, settlement, credit investigation, finance and taxation, and comprehensive foreign trade services such as efficient customs clearance, foreign exchange collection and tax rebate, as well as a new regulation pattern based on information, data and intelligence and a new system of international rules, Wang added.
The advantages of the super-large market, plus the industrial promotion mechanism, and inclusive regulation, have facilitated the rapid development of China's CBEC enterprises with larger scale and greater strength. But it should be noted that CBEC is still in its infant stage of development, with its supporting facilities for storage, transportation, distribution, after-sales service, experience, payment and settlement yet to be improved. The regulation should also be upgraded with the times, with equal importance paid to standardization and development, said Wang.
CBEC sees a strong growth momentum with great market demand, favorable policies, and improving supporting facilities. It's reported that China has maintained more than 1,800 CBEC warehouses abroad, with an annual growth of 80 percent in 2020, which cover an area of more than 12 million square meters.
(Edited by Gao Jingyan with Xinhua Silk Road, gaojingyan@xinhua.org)
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