Online Interview
Topic: China Customs 20 Measures to Support Steady Foreign-Trade Growth
Time:10:30 AM (Fri) May 23, 2014
Special Guests:Li Kuiwen, Deputy Director General, GACC Department of Policy Research; Miao Yuexue, Deputy Director General, GACC Department of Customs Control and Inspection; Huang Guohua, Associate Counsel, GACC Department of Statistics
Online Interview Photos
China Customs 20 Measures to Support Steady Foreign-Trade Growth
[Wang Hua]: Hello, netizens, welcome to China Customs Online Interview! I’m Wang Hua. From this year on, China’s foreign trade will be faced with new situations, mainly including weak economic growth, heavier pressure from economic downturn and the transformation of foreign trade. Recently, the GACC has announced twenty measures to support the steady growth of foreign trade. Today, we are joined by three leaders from GACC: Mr. Li Kuiwen, Deputy Director of GACC Department of Policy Research; Mr. Miao Yuexue, Deputy Director General of GACC Department of Customs Control and Inspection; and Mr. Huang Guohua, Assistant Counsel of GACC Department of Statistics. Welcome! 05/23/2014 10:30:08
[Li Kuiwen]: Hello everyone! 05/23/2014 10:30:19
[Miao Yuexue]: Hello! 05/23/2014 10:30:26
[Huang Guohua]: Hello! 05/23/2014 10:30:33
[Wang Hua]: The current situation of China’s foreign trade is a great concern to many people. First, I would like to invite Mr. Huang, a top-level expert and the associate counsel of the Department of Statistics, to brief us on this issue. 05/23/2014 10:31:00
[Huang Guohua]: OK. In general, the foreign trade situation this year appears to be relatively complicated and grave. The first four months has witnessed a year-on-year decline in total import and export value by 3.1 percent, with the export value down 4.8 percent, and import down 1.2 percent. This is the “double decline” called by some media, which, if the 2009 global financial crisis is left out, emerges as the first of its kind within over a decade. It has aroused broad attention. 05/23/2014 10:31:29
[Huang Guohua]: Numerically, the “double decline” suggests that China’s foreign trade is indeed faced with some trouble. However, I think one important factor for such a situation is that the base number of the same period last year was higher. Not considering the effects of the factor, the country’s import and export still operate within a basically reasonable range. As the factor has weaker effects, and the series of measures recently issued by the State Council and departments are being implemented, the import and export sectors of China will rebound and enter a phase of steady and moderate growth. 05/23/2014 10:32:01
[Huang Guohua]: In fact, monthly statistics show that the total import and export value in April increased by 0.8 percent year-on-year, with a year-on-year growth by 0.9 percent in export and by 0.8 percent in import, and a positive growth in total as a result. According to the leading index on China’s import and export worked out by GACC, in April the leading index reached 41.9, up by 0.2 on a month-on-month basis after a month-on-month growth of 0.4 realized in March. It also indicates that the export will get better in the coming period. 05/23/2014 10:32:16
[Wang Hua]: Thanks for your explanation, Mr. Huang. We can see that the State Council has issued policies timely and convincingly, and proposed 16 specific measures. Well, Mr. Li, do these measures have something about the Customs? 05/23/2014 10:32:39
[Li Kuiwen]:On May 4, the General Office of the State Council officially issued the “Several Opinions on Promoting the Steady Growth of Foreign Trade”, or the GuoBan No.19 document. Of the sixteen measures covering five aspects specified in the document, seven measures are directly related to the Customs, including further enhancing import, maintaining the steady growth of commodity trade, supporting the development of service trade, improving trade facilitation, optimizing export tax refund policy, supporting the development of foreign trade enterprises, and diversifying and perfecting trade platforms. 05/23/2014 10:33:20