Economic focus | Pilot expansion Cross-border e-commerce ushered in new opportunities

Source: People's Daily

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Cross-border e-commerce is a new form of foreign trade with the fastest development speed, the greatest potential and the strongest driving effect, and is still in a period of rapid development.

At present, the mainland cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test zone has formed a development pattern of land and sea linkage, east-west two-way mutual benefit. With the gradual expansion of the scale of the "test field" and the increasing experience of replicable promotion, cross-border e-commerce has become a new driving force for the development of foreign trade, a new channel for transformation and upgrading, and a new starting point for high-quality development.

The State Council recently issued the "Reply on Agreeing to Establish a Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone in 27 Cities and Regions including Ordos" (hereinafter referred to as the "Reply"), and the scale of the cross-border e-commerce pilot field has been expanding. After this expansion, what is the pattern of the mainland cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test area? How to promote the high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test area? The reporter conducted an interview.

The pilot covers a wide range, highlights regional priorities, and has a rich development gradient

New formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce are a living force in the development of mainland foreign trade and an important trend in the development of international trade. The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the development of new trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce. In July 2021, the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Formats and Models of Foreign Trade, which clearly proposed to solidly promote the construction of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test zones.

The so-called cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test area is a comprehensive reform pilot that provides replicable and generalizable experience for promoting the development of cross-border e-commerce in the mainland through institutional innovation, management innovation, service innovation and coordinated development. It should be the first to try out the technical standards, business processes, regulatory models and information construction of cross-border e-commerce transactions, payment, logistics, customs clearance, tax rebates, foreign exchange settlement and other links.

Hong Yong, associate researcher of the Institute of E-commerce of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that previously, the State Council has set up 105 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test areas in 5 batches, covering 30 provinces, plus the newly approved 27 places, as of now, the mainland has set up cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test areas in 132 cities and regions. The further expansion of coverage will provide more powerful support for the innovative development of cross-border e-commerce.

Gao Feng, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said that from the perspective of layout, there are three main characteristics: First, the coverage is wide. It has basically covered the whole country, forming a development pattern of land, sea and domestic linkage, and two-way mutual benefit between east and west. Second, the regional focus is prominent. Achieve full coverage of major foreign trade provinces such as Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang and municipalities directly under the central government such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing. Third, the development gradient is rich. There are both coastal cities along the border and inland hub cities; there are both cities with obvious foreign trade advantages and cities with outstanding industrial characteristics, and the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test area will play a more active role in promoting the high-level opening up of the region.

"Cross-border e-commerce is a new form of foreign trade with the fastest development speed, the greatest potential and the strongest driving effect, and it is still in a period of rapid development." The person in charge of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce said.

Try to help cross-border e-commerce development first

In the comprehensive bonded zone of Qianhai, Shenzhen, several intelligent sorting lines operate at full capacity, and one parcel after another is checked and released at a second speed after the customs X-ray machine and CT machine are compared with the screen and the intelligent judgment map, and the express delivery transport vehicles loaded with goods are ready to go.

Since Shenzhen was approved as a cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test zone in 2016, Qianhai has promoted the integrated development of cross-border e-commerce "online shopping bonded imports", "e-commerce general exports", "B2B (enterprise-to-business) direct exports" and other regulatory models, realizing the "same warehouse storage" and "same warehouse allocation" of goods in various regulatory methods, with a cumulative export package of more than 1 billion and a value of nearly 60 billion yuan.

"The establishment of a cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test zone has brought new opportunities for the development of foreign trade enterprises." Wu Haibo, chairman of Shenzhen Cross-border Trade Logistics Supervision Center Co., Ltd., said that under the innovative supervision of Shenzhen Customs, a variety of cross-border e-commerce trade methods can be completed in Qianhai, and enterprises can "spell mode", "spell goods" and "fight logistics" in the park, and the turnover efficiency of import and export commodities has been greatly improved.

In recent years, the Ministry of Commerce has accelerated the development of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test areas, explored the establishment of a policy framework with "six systems and two platforms" (namely information sharing, financial services, intelligent logistics, e-commerce credit, statistical monitoring and risk prevention and control "six systems", and online single window and offline comprehensive park "two platforms") as the core, and copied and promoted nearly 70 mature experiences and innovative practices nationwide. According to reports, the newly established comprehensive pilot zone will continue to carry out first-come, first-served trials, and apply policy measures such as cross-border e-commerce retail export taxation and retail import supervision.

Driven by the pilot, cross-border e-commerce in the mainland has developed rapidly and achieved good results. According to customs statistics, since 2017, the scale of cross-border e-commerce in the mainland has increased by nearly 10 times in five years, and in 2021, the import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce in the mainland will reach 1.98 trillion yuan, an increase of 15%. Cross-border e-commerce has become a new driving force for the development of foreign trade, a new channel for transformation and upgrading, and a new starting point for high-quality development.

Replicate and disseminate proven practices

Riding on the east wind of the expansion of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test area, Ningbo Discovery International Logistics Co., Ltd. is accelerating the layout of overseas warehouse business.

In 2016, the Ningbo Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Test Zone was established. "With the support of the comprehensive test zone policy, we began to focus on the construction of public overseas warehouses to provide logistics supporting services for cross-border e-commerce enterprises." Zhou Jian, general manager of the company, told reporters that the company's overseas warehouse area has reached 180,000 square meters, and the average daily processing capacity exceeds 50,000 pieces. Overseas warehouses have been opened in many overseas places and provide professional shipping, air freight, express delivery, overseas warehouse one piece of delivery and other logistics and distribution services.

The pilot expansion, Jingdezhen is also among them. "We hope to bring the advanced experience and practices of overseas warehouses to Jingdezhen, provide cross-border sellers in the central region with a one-stop service of 'warehousing logistics + overseas warehouse + trajectory tracking', and help more Chinese manufacturers go abroad." Zhou Jian said.

The "Reply" emphasizes that the construction of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones should adhere to innovation-driven development, copy and promote the mature experience and practices of the first five batches of comprehensive pilot zones, give play to the positive role of cross-border e-commerce in helping the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and promoting the digital development of industries, guide the healthy and sustainable innovation and development of cross-border e-commerce, go all out to stabilize the basic plate of foreign trade and foreign investment, and promote high-quality trade development.

Gao Feng said that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will accelerate the establishment of a new comprehensive test zone combined with local foreign trade and industrial characteristics, formulate a specific work plan and organize its implementation, and strive for early results. At the same time, we will improve the evaluation and exit mechanism of the comprehensive test area to dynamically adjust and promote the survival of the fittest. Improve supporting policies, optimize the list of cross-border e-commerce retail imports, facilitate the management of cross-border e-commerce import and export returns and exchanges, and study and formulate guidelines for the protection of cross-border e-commerce intellectual property rights.