Minister Ni Yuefeng receives the press interview on the “ministers’ passage” of the National People’s Congress.

Minister Ni Yuefeng was interviewed after the opening meeting of the second session of the 13th National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2019.

In the interview, Ni told about China’s foreign-trade characteristics and the country’s efforts to fight solid waste smuggling.

“In 2018, China made remarkable achievements in foreign trade,” said Minister Ni, summarizing four points as follows:

1. China maintained its position as the world’s largest trader of goods with steady growth in import and export. Over the past year, China’s share in global import market increased by 0.5 percentage point year-on-year to 10.7%. In global export market, the share of China-made electro-mechanical products increased by 0.7 percentage point year-on-year to 15.8%. The figures indicated that the competitive edges of both Chinese enterprises and products are shifting from traditional advantages to the drive of innovation.

2. China made great progress under the “Belt and Road” Initiative. Over the past year, the total trade between China and the countries along the “Belt and Road” has grown faster by 3.6 percentage points than China’s gross foreign trade in value.

3. New business models were thriving. For example, China’s gross import-export value of cross-border e-commerce has been growing fast in recent years, up 80% in 2017 and up 50% in 2018 year-on-year. Particularly on November 11, or the e-shopping carnival, there were more than 27 million consignments that need customs clearance, with nearly 1,000 consignments released per second at the peak. China Customs has applied the AI-based risk profiling technology to expedite clearance process under effective control. 

4. Domestic business environment improved considerably for cross-border trade. According to the World Bank, China’s ease of doing business ranking was raised by 32 places in 2018 due to the sharp reforms in the country compared to the 97th in late 2017. 19 government agencies in China worked together to cut the number of documents for customs verification at port from 86 to 46. Over the past year, both average clearance time and cargo clearance time was reduced by over 50% year-on-year, fulfilling the tasks assigned by the State Council. 

Minister Ni then briefed on Customs efforts to fight solid waste smuggling. Last year, the GACC carried out five rounds of the “Blue Sky 2018” campaign, producing a strong deterrent effect. He also called for global actions “because only by working together can the problem be thoroughly solved”. The campaign of “Operation Demeter”, drawing in 75 countries/regions, prompted the world to focus on recycling and disposing of solid waste. 

According to Minister Ni, China Customs has imposed the strictest inspections over solid waste at  ports of entry. At operation fields with large container inspecting equipment, the solid waste is inspected by the machine; at fields in the absence of such equipment, the solid waste is manually unpacked and inspected by customs officers. Last year, the import of solid waste was reduced by 46.5% year-on-year.

The GACC also intensified post-clearance control as well as source inspections. The merging of CIQs and Customs last year makes it more efficient to conduct pre-shipment inspection abroad, through which 150,000 tons of substandard solid waste was found last year. Through tighter post-clearance control, incompliant enterprises were removed of their licenses.

Minister Ni also called for media and public attention to the “Blue Sky 2019” campaign to be launched this year.