In order to cope with the severe situation brought by the current international epidemic situation to China’s foreign trade and foreign investment, the general office of the State Council put forward 15 guiding opinions for stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment in August 2020.

1.       Better play the role of export credit insurance

Under the premise of controllable risk, China export credit insurance company actively protects the risk of order cancellation before shipment. Before the end of 2020, China export credit insurance company may reasonably change the payment period of short-term insurance or extend the grace period of payment and the period of reporting loss according to the application of foreign trade enterprises.

2.       Support conditional local replication or expansion for financing model of the “Credit Insurance and Guarantee”

Local governments should be encouraged to support government financing guarantee institutions to participate in risk sharing, guarantee the loan principal in a certain proportion other than the compensation amount of export credit insurance, and commercial banks should reasonably determine the loan interest rate under the condition of “Credit Insurance and Guarantee”.

3.       Providing credit enhancement support for foreign trade enterprises in various ways

We should give full play to the role of national financing guarantee fund and local government financing guarantee institutions, participate in the financing risk sharing in the field of foreign trade, support and guide various financial institutions to increase financing support for small and micro foreign trade enterprises. Banking institutions are encouraged to cooperate with foreign trade service platforms with good qualifications in combination with internal risk management requirements, obtain trade-related information and credit evaluation services, optimize the authenticity audit of trade background, and better serve foreign trade enterprises.

4.       Further expand export credit to small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises

We should give better play to the role of financial support, further increase the credit supply to small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises and ease the problems of financing difficulties and high financing costs.

5.       Support the development of new trade formats

As soon as possible, we will promote the establishment of a new batch of market procurement trade mode pilot projects in places where conditions permit, and strive to expand the total number of pilot projects to about 30, so as to drive the export of small and medium-sized enterprises. Make full use of existing channels such as special funds for foreign trade and economic development and guidance fund for innovation and development of service trade to support cross-border e-commerce platform, cross-border logistics development and overseas warehouse construction. Financial institutions such as the export import bank and China Export Credit Insurance Corporation are encouraged to actively support the construction of overseas warehouses under the premise of controllable risks.

6.       Guide the gradient transfer of processing trade

Local governments should be encouraged to support the gradient transfer of processing trade through funds and other means in combination with local conditions. We will cultivate a number of processing trade industrial parks jointly built by the eastern, central, western and northeast regions. With the help of China processing trade products Expo and other platforms, we will improve the industrial transfer docking mechanism. We should encourage the central and western regions and the northeast to give full play to their advantages and undertake labour-intensive foreign trade industries.

7.       Increase support for labour-intensive enterprises

For export enterprises of labour-intensive products such as textiles, clothing, furniture, shoes and boots, plastic products, bags, toys, stones, agricultural products, consumer electronics and other labour-intensive products export enterprises, we will further increase support on the basis of implementing various inclusive policies, such as tax reduction and fee reduction, export credit, export credit insurance, stable employment, electricity and water use.

8.       Help large backbone foreign trade enterprises solve problems

We will study and determine the list of large-scale backbone foreign trade enterprises, sort out the needs of large-scale backbone foreign trade enterprises and their core supporting enterprises, establish a problem approval system, promote the solution of contradictions encountered in production and operation, support all aspects of import and export, and provide good services with "one enterprise, one policy". Under the premise of controllable risk, this paper studies the supporting measures for large-scale backbone foreign trade enterprises to further accelerate the progress of export tax rebate.

9.       Expand the online channels of foreign trade

Promote "online one country, one exhibition", support and encourage capable and willing local governments and key industry associations to hold online exhibitions. We should make good use of the special funds for foreign trade and economic development, support small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises to develop markets and participate in online and offline exhibitions within the prescribed scope. We should give full play to the role of domestic business associations, overseas institutions and overseas Chinese funded enterprise associations, actively connect with foreign trade associations in China, and help export enterprises connect with more overseas buyers.

10.     Further improve the level of customs clearance facilitation

We will continue to optimize the business environment at ports, continue to consolidate the effect of reducing the overall customs clearance time of goods, further promote the standardization and reduction of compliance costs in the import and export links, promote the "one-stop sunshine price" of port charges at conditional ports, and improve the transparency and comparability of port charges. We will provide more consultation services on technical and trade measures to export enterprises and help them develop overseas markets. We will expand market access for oil, oil, meat and dairy products, promote imports, and ensure market supply.

11.      Improve the convenience of foreign business personnel in China

On the premise of strictly implementing the epidemic prevention requirements, we will continue to negotiate with relevant countries to establish "fast track" to facilitate the exchange of personnel in important business, logistics, production and technical services of foreign-funded enterprises. We will continue to implement the "fast track" for qualified foreigners who come to China to resume work and resume production. With reference to the relevant practice of "fast track" and the principle of "putting epidemic prevention first, ensuring necessity, compacting responsibilities and embodying convenience", convenience arrangements are made for foreigners who come to China to engage in necessary economic, trade, scientific and technological activities. We will support local governments in opening exclusive channels to facilitate foreign investors to enter the market and give priority to foreign businessmen stationed in China to return to China and enter the market as soon as possible. On the premise of doing a good job in the prevention and control of the epidemic situation, China and foreign personnel exchanges will be gradually and orderly resumed. According to the deployment of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council, the total number of international passenger flights will be increased in phases. Under the condition of complete epidemic prevention certificates, the number of civil aviation flights with China's major investment sources will be appropriately increased to facilitate foreign business personnel to come to China.

12.     Give financial support to key foreign-funded enterprises

Foreign funded enterprises are equally applicable to the existing 1.5 trillion yuan special line for refinancing and rediscount. We will increase financial support for key foreign-funded enterprises. The new loan scale of RMB 570 billion from the export import bank can be used to actively support key foreign-funded enterprises that meet the requirements. The competent commercial departments of all provinces, autonomous regions and cities shall find out the financing needs and operation conditions of key foreign-funded enterprises within their jurisdiction, timely share the information of key foreign-funded enterprises with banking financial institutions, strengthen the cooperation between foreign-funded enterprise associations and other institutions and banking financial institutions, promote the development of "bank enterprise docking", and actively guarantee the financing needs of key foreign-funded enterprises in accordance with the principle of marketization.

13.      Increase support and service for key foreign funded projects

We will sort out and form a list of key foreign-funded projects with an investment of more than 100 million US dollars in the whole country. In the early stage, under construction and production, domestic and foreign investment will be treated equally, and service guarantee in the aspects of sea use, land use, energy consumption and environmental protection will be strengthened.

14.     Encourage foreign capital to invest more in high-tech industries

We will promote the convenience of management and service for the identification of high-tech enterprises, further strengthen the training, publicity and interpretation of foreign-invested enterprises applying for the identification of high-tech enterprises, focus on strengthening the policy services for enterprises in emergency fields such as epidemic prevention and control, and attract more foreign investment into the fields of high-tech and people's livelihood and health.

15.     Reduce the threshold for foreign R & D centers to enjoy preferential policies

We will reduce the number of full-time research and experimental development personnel in foreign R & D centers that support the import tax policy of scientific and technological innovation, encourage foreign investors to set up R & D centers in China, and improve the quality of foreign investment.