China Council for the promotion of international trade: positive changes in China's foreign trade operation in the second quarter

China Council for the promotion of international trade (CCPIT) released the survey report on China's foreign trade situation in the second quarter of 2022 on September 29. According to the survey report, with the effective coordination of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, the effects of policies and measures to stabilize growth have gradually emerged, and China's foreign trade operation in the second quarter witnessed positive changes.
On the same day, CCPIT held a regular press conference, and fengyaoxiang, spokesperson of CCPIT and Minister of trade and investment promotion department, released the research report. He introduced that the CCPIT recently issued questionnaires to foreign trade enterprises in the whole industry nationwide and formed a research report based on comprehensive international and domestic data. The survey report shows that China's foreign trade operation in the second quarter showed the following characteristics:
First, the operation of foreign trade enterprises has improved. Among the surveyed enterprises, 25.43% of the enterprises' trade volume increased month on month, and 19.98% of the enterprises' profits increased month on month. The export profit performance of high value-added industries such as special equipment manufacturing, automobile, computer communication and other electronic equipment, pharmaceutical manufacturing, etc. was stronger than that in the first quarter. 22.65% of enterprises' new orders increased compared with the first quarter, and 30.43% of enterprises' orders increased at the same rate as the first quarter. At the same time, the proportion of new orders from the Middle East, Japan, South Korea, Africa and other countries and regions has increased, the new order market is more diversified, and foreign trade has a stronger ability to resist risks.
Second, the major problems faced by foreign trade enterprises have improved. 22.13% of the enterprises said that the logistics cost was lower than that in the first quarter. 15.05% of the enterprises believed that the capital cost was lower than that of the same period last year, which was 3.38% higher than that of the first quarter. 38.8% of enterprises said that the problem of exchange rate eroding profits in the second quarter had been alleviated. Only 15.63% of enterprises said that the employment problem was prominent, which was 3.87 percentage points lower than that in the first quarter. The main difficulties faced by enterprises are still concentrated in the "one up and one down", that is, the rise in raw material costs and the year-on-year decline in new orders.
Third, the fundamental trend of foreign trade is good. The policy of stabilizing foreign trade has achieved remarkable results in relieving difficulties. 55.97% of the enterprises think that accelerating export tax rebate is the most helpful for enterprises to relieve the pressure of cash flow, 54.8% of the enterprises and 48.21% of the enterprises respectively think that accelerating tax reduction and fee reduction and alleviating the pressure of logistics are more effective to solve the actual operation difficulties of foreign trade enterprises. At the same time, foreign trade enterprises' understanding and utilization of the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) have increased significantly.
Fourth, foreign trade enterprises' expectations for annual growth have increased. 26.22% of the enterprises expect the annual trade volume to increase, and 28.17% of the enterprises believe that it is at least the same as last year. Among them, large enterprises are expected to be stable, medium-sized enterprises are optimistic about the foreign trade situation of the whole year, and the confidence of small and micro enterprises is gradually increasing.
"The research report shows that China's foreign trade industry has a solid foundation, and its long-term positive fundamentals have not changed. The advantages of strong toughness, sufficient potential and large room for maneuver in foreign trade development will become more prominent." Fengyaoxiang said that in the next step, CCPIT will promote the promotion and implementation of free trade agreements such as RCEP with high quality, strengthen the issuance of certificates of origin, actively perform the issuing duties of ATA Carnets, strengthen foreign-related commercial legal services, and take multiple measures to help maintain the stability and improve the quality of foreign trade.
According to fengyaoxiang, in the first five months of this year, the amount of certificates of origin issued by the national trade promotion system totaled US $155.34 billion, an increase of 23.95% year-on-year. For five consecutive months, Japan ranked first in the RCEP certificate of origin visa amount of the national trade promotion system, accounting for more than 90% of the monthly visa amount, indicating that the implementation of the RCEP agreement has a significant pulling effect on China's exports to Japan.