| comprehensive foreign trade services also need supply-side reform

Approaching the end of 2020, two furniture trade data is quite interesting. Data from the General Administration of Customs showed that from January to November, the exports of furniture and its parts totaled 356.07 billion yuan, up 11.2 percent year-on-year. The cumulative import volume of logs and converted timber was 102.04 billion yuan, down 10.8% year-on-year.

The first is that the rapid growth of furniture exports is good for the whole industry, but there are some worries: the upstream raw materials and parts rise in price and may not be able to stabilize the supply. After finishing the furniture order, it is found that the shipping booking space not only increases greatly, but also can't go to sea for a long time. After the goods are shipped overseas, overseas warehouses are full again. In addition, the rise of the RMB exchange rate reduces the export profits of enterprises, and foreign customers may cancel orders or be unable to pay for goods due to the epidemic...

The second is the year-on-year decline in the import of logs and converted timber, making it difficult for foreign trade enterprises to relax. Because many enterprises mainly import furniture raw materials from abroad, in recent years, China's important furniture importing countries often appear on the supply chain changes, so that Chinese furniture enterprises can not rest easy on the supply of raw materials, but continue to suffer pressure and test. For example, Equatorial Guinea, a major source of timber imports for China, has banned log exports since January 1, 2019. Exports of tropical logs from Laos and Myanmar, which supply China with large quantities of tropical logs, fell sharply in the first half of 2020. In the field of wood and furniture, the international Forest Management Commission (FSC) certification has also become a "roadblock" to the transformation and upgrading of furniture foreign trade enterprises, because the certification requires that wood and wood products have legal source certification, which puts forward higher requirements on the supply chain management ability of Chinese furniture enterprises.

It can be seen from the happiness and worry brought to furniture foreign trade enterprises by these two data that in recent years, especially in 2020, there have been many changes in the categories and emphasis of comprehensive foreign trade services urgently needed by foreign trade enterprises. One of the key points is that the pressure on the management of the industrial chain and supply chain has increased significantly and needs to be supported. However, from the perspective of the content provided by the domestic well-known foreign trade comprehensive service platforms such as Yitatong and Yuman Global, the six functions of financing, customs clearance, tax refund, logistics, insurance and foreign exchange collection are basically included. Although they offer services with terms such as "supply chain", a closer look at the details puts the focus mainly on supply chain finance and the six basic functions of "financing" in the same category. This year and foreign trade enterprises feel the pressure of supply chain management and supply chain security and stability of the demand has a significant gap.

From the above status quo can also be seen, foreign trade comprehensive service platform for foreign trade enterprises to provide is not a "through-train" service. In fact, comprehensive foreign trade services can not only increase the supply chain management function, but also can add the function of exchange rate hedging, export market research (consulting) and other functions, so as to truly and comprehensively urgent enterprises, to meet the needs of enterprises.

Of course, it should also be noted that this involves the modification and expansion of the definition of foreign trade comprehensive service and foreign trade comprehensive service platform, as well as the further improvement of policies and regulations. Only with the support and recognition of policies and regulations, more comprehensive and more suitable for the current foreign trade comprehensive service platform can emerge.

Reviewing the evolution of foreign trade service from "foreign trade agency" to "comprehensive foreign trade service" in that year, it has also gone through a long historical stage. Many foreign trade comprehensive service platforms also indicate that they are obviously different from the former foreign trade agency. Therefore, we should be optimistic and patient about the expansion of the functions of foreign trade comprehensive services towards a real "through-train".