RCEP releases trade dividend at Canton Fair

Exhibitors introduce products on a livestream at the booth of Guangzhou Textiles Holdings Limited during the China Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, April 15, 2022. (Xinhua)

The 131st China Import and Export Fair, also known as Canton Fair, came to a successful conclusion last Sunday after the ten-day online exhibition, reported Economic Daily recently.

With the theme of China's "dual circulation" development pattern, the Canton Fair has encouraged many enterprises to make use of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and spare no effort to exploit international markets.

Xu Bing, a spokesperson of the Canton Fair and deputy director of China Foreign Trade Centre (CFTC), said that the success of the online 131st Canton Fair has sufficiently shown China's unwavering confidence and resolution in opening-up and foreign cooperation, which is conducive to promoting international trade cooperation and global economic recovery.

-- Releasing trade dividend

In the first quarter of this year, China saw the total value of import and export goods reaching 9.42 trillion yuan, with an increase of 10.7 percent year on year, maintaining growth for seven consecutive quarters on a year-on-year basis.

Facing the insecure factors in the recovery of global trade and economy, the RCEP, which came into force at the beginning of 2022, has already seen its great potential and is expected to sustainably release trade dividend and bring concrete benefits to enterprises and customers.

Customs statistics showed that China's total import and export value with other 14 RCEP member countries reached 2.86 trillion yuan in the first quarter, with a year-on-year increase of 6.9 percent, accounting for 30.4 percent of the total foreign trade value during the same period.

According to Wang Shouwen, Deputy Minister of Commerce, the government is willing to help enterprises to get familiar with relevant clauses of RCEP, which will help them to generate new vigor and motivation.

China has actively promoted the implementation of relevant RCEP Rules of Origin and tariff concession this year. In the first quarter, the favored import value reached 6.72 billion yuan, and tax concession reached 130 million yuan.

-- Sharing global resources

To further expand import to RCEP member countries, the Canton Fair took the initiative to cooperate with relevant organizations and successfully invited 117 enterprises from the RCEP member countries attending the import exhibition, which accounts for 29.1 percent of all participants of import exhibition.

During the Canton Fair this year, Guangzhou Customs has provided a list of nearly 5,000 Authorized Economic Operators (AEOs), aiming to help quality domestic enterprises obtain more orders overseas.

Up to now, China has signed the AEO reciprocal recognition agreements with 22 economies like the European Union(EU) and Singapore, covering 48 countries and regions.

Now, the Canton Fair has 170 global partners including 40 from RCEP member countries, such as the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LNCCI), Business Association of China in Vietnam, and Council of ASEAN Furniture Industry.

-- Stabilizing foreign trade

In 2021, China saw its foreign trade volume reaching 6.05 trillion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 30 percent, which hit a record high since 2010.

Facing such a high base number, China still has the confidence to complete this year's target to stabilize the basic performance of foreign trade and foreign investment, Wang Shouwen said.

The government has shown great resolution with many measures and policies launched to stabilize foreign trade, while enterprises are also taking initiative steps to stabilize foreign business from their side.

Tengzhou Tri-union Machinery Co., Ltd. (TTMC) is a private enterprise in China's Shandong that specializes in sawing machine, vertical drills and other equipment production, and 85 percent of its products have been imported to 80 countries.

TTMC has started to attend the Canton Fair since 2000 and been provided with many opportunities. Since last year, the government started to provide the company RCEP related training and both the customers and the company are willing to make good use of RCEP policies to better promote their business, said Ge Aijing, an employee of TTMC.

Nowadays, the Canton Fair is not only a platform for China's companies to win foreign trade orders, but also a linkage between domestic and international markets, which is expected to create more and more favorable conditions for global enterprises in the future in product innovation, brand communication, and global industrial ecological chain construction, according to head of overseas department of Galanz Group.