Cross-border e-commerce is a new form of foreign trade with the fastest development, the greatest potential and the strongest driving effect, and it is still in a period of rapid development.
At present, my country's cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone has formed a development pattern of linkage between land and sea, and two-way mutual assistance between east and west. As the scale of the "experimental field" gradually expands and the experience that can be replicated and promoted continues to increase, cross-border e-commerce has become a new driving force for foreign trade development, a new channel for transformation and upgrading, and a new starting point for high-quality development.
The State Council recently issued the "Reply on Approving the Establishment of Comprehensive Pilot Zones for Cross-border E-commerce in 27 Cities and Regions including Ordos" (hereinafter referred to as the "Reply"). After this expansion, what is the pattern of my country's 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.
Extensive pilot coverage, prominent regional focus, and rich development gradients
New business forms and new models such as cross-border e-commerce are a vital force in the development of my country's 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 New Models of Foreign Trade", clearly proposing to solidly promote the construction of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones.
The so-called cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone is a comprehensive reform pilot that provides replicable and popularizable experience for promoting the development of cross-border e-commerce in my country through institutional innovation, management innovation, service innovation and coordinated development. It is necessary to take the lead in the technical standards, business processes, supervision models and information construction of cross-border e-commerce transactions, payment, logistics, customs clearance, tax rebates, foreign exchange settlement and other aspects.
Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the Institute of Electronic Commerce of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the State Council had set up 105 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones in 5 batches, covering 30 provinces and 27 newly approved areas this time. So far, my country has established cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones in 132 cities and regions. The further expansion of coverage will provide stronger support for the innovative development of cross-border e-commerce.
Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said that in terms of layout, there are three main characteristics: First, the coverage is wide. It has basically covered the whole country, forming a development pattern of linkage between land and sea and two-way mutual assistance between east and west. The second is regional focus. Realize full coverage of major foreign trade provinces such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, 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 and inland hub cities; there are cities with obvious advantages in foreign trade and cities with outstanding industrial characteristics. The cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone will play a more active role in promoting the high-level opening of the region.
"Cross-border e-commerce is a new form of foreign trade with the fastest development, the greatest potential and the strongest driving effect, and it is still in a period of rapid development." said the person in charge of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce.
First try to help the development of cross-border e-commerce
In the comprehensive bonded area in Qianhai, Shenzhen, several intelligent sorting lines are operating at full capacity. One by one parcels are inspected and released in seconds after the customs X-ray machine and CT machine are compared on the same screen and intelligently judged, and express delivery vehicles are loaded with goods. The transport vehicle is ready to go.
Since Shenzhen was approved as a comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce in 2016, Qianhai has promoted the integration of cross-border e-commerce "online shopping bonded import", "e-commerce general export" and "B2B (business-to-business) direct export" and other regulatory models. Development, realize the "same warehouse storage" and "same warehouse allocation" of various supervision methods, and the cumulative export package exceeds 1 billion, with a value of nearly 60 billion yuan.
"The establishment of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone has brought new development opportunities for 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, enterprises can "combine models", "commodities" and "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 pilot zones, and explored the establishment of [six systems" based on [six systems and two platforms" (that is, information sharing, financial services, intelligent logistics, e-commerce credit, statistical monitoring and risk prevention and control). , as well as the online single window and offline comprehensive park [two platforms") as the core policy framework, replicate and promote nearly 70 mature experiences and innovative practices nationwide. According to reports, the newly established comprehensive pilot zone will continue to carry out pilot and pilot, and apply policies and measures such as cross-border e-commerce retail export taxation and retail import supervision.
Driven by the pilot, my country's cross-border e-commerce has developed rapidly and achieved good results. According to customs statistics, since 2017, the scale of my country's cross-border e-commerce has increased nearly 10 times in five years. In 2021, my country's cross-border e-commerce import and export volume will reach 1.98 trillion yuan, an increase of 15%. Cross-border e-commerce has become a new driving force for foreign trade development, a new channel for transformation and upgrading, and a new starting point for high-quality development.
Copy and promote mature experience and practices
Taking advantage 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, Ningbo Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone was established. "With the policy support of the comprehensive pilot zone, we have begun to focus on building public overseas warehouses to provide logistics supporting services for cross-border e-commerce companies." Zhou Jian, general manager of the company, told reporters that the company's overseas warehouses now have an area of 180,000 square meters. The average daily processing volume exceeds 50,000 pieces. It has opened overseas warehouses in many overseas places and provides professional shipping, air transportation, express delivery, overseas warehouse one-piece delivery and other logistics and distribution services.
Jingdezhen is also included in this pilot expansion. "We hope to bring the advanced experience and practices of overseas warehouses to Jingdezhen to provide cross-border sellers in the central region with a one-stop service of 'warehousing logistics + overseas warehouse + track tracking' to help more Chinese manufacturing go abroad." Zhou Jian said .
The "Approval" emphasizes that the construction of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones must adhere to innovation-driven development, replicate and promote the mature experience and practices of the first five batches of comprehensive pilot zones, and give full 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 fundamentals of foreign trade and foreign investment, and promote the high-quality development of trade.
Gao Feng said that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will accelerate the promotion of the newly established comprehensive pilot zone in combination with local foreign trade and industrial characteristics, formulate specific work plans and organize their implementation, and strive to achieve results as soon as possible. At the same time, improve the evaluation and exit mechanism of the comprehensive test area to promote the survival of the fittest through dynamic adjustment. 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 cross-border e-commerce intellectual property protection guidelines.
