GUOBANFA [2020]28

People’s Governments of All Provinces, Autonomous Regions and Municipalities, all ministries and commissions of the State Council, and all subordinate agencies:

Currently, the Pandemic is spreading continuously around the globe, and the world economy is suffering severe recession, so we are faced with complicated grim situations in securing foreign trade and investments. To thoroughly implement President Xi Jinping’s critical instructions and comments on the bedrock foreign trade and investments, carry out the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, ensure “Six Stable” (job market, finance, trade, foreign investment, investment & anticipation) and “Six Secure” (employment, livelihood, market players, food & energy supplies, industrial chains & supply chains, and grass-roots level operation), further promote foreign trade and investments, and assure foreign trade players and stable industrial chains and supply chains, by consent of the State Council, we hereby issue the following opinions:  

I. Give more play to export credit insurance (ECI). China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, on the premises of controllable risks, should seek to insure pre-shipment order cancellation risks. By the end of 2020, China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation can rationally change short-term insurance payment deadlines or extend the deadlines for payment and breakage report deadlines. (The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, China Banking Regulatory Commission, and China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation shall take their assigned responsibilities).

II. Support those local places under favorable conditions to duplicate or extend the “credit + guarantee” financing mode. Local placed under favorable conditions should be encouraged to support those governmental financing guarantee bodies to get involved and share the risks. They can have proportional guarantee for the loan principal not covered by ECI (export credit insurance), and commercial banks, on the “credit + guarantee” condition, can rationally determine the loan rate. (All local people’s governments, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, China Banking Regulatory Commission, and China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation shall take their assigned responsibilities).

III. Provide foreign trade enterprises with various forms of credit enhancement support for financing. National Financing Guarantee Funds and local governmental financing guarantee agencies shall be given full play to participate in sharing financing risks in foreign trade, supporting and guiding various financing institutions to have more financing supports for small and micro foreign trade firms. (All local people’s governments, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, People’s Bank of China, and China Banking Regulatory Commission shall take their assigned responsibilities). Banking agencies, in light of their internal risk management, cooperate with those foreign trade services platforms of favorable qualifications, secure relevant trade information and credit assessment services, and optimize trade background authenticity verification, so as to better serve foreign trade enterprises. (All local people’s governments, the Ministry of Commerce, and China Banking Regulatory Commission shall take their assigned responsibilities).

IV. Further expand export credit loan placements for medium, small and micro foreign trade enterprises. With a bigger role of financial support, medium, small and micro foreign trade enterprises should be provided with more credit loan placements, to ease their financing difficulties, and reduce their financing expenses. (All local people’s governments, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, People’s Bank of China, and China Banking Regulatory Commission shall take their assigned responsibilities).

V. Support new forms of trade business. Local places under favorable conditions should as soon as possible promote newly-added market purchase trade mode pilots, up to around 30 in total nationwide, facilitating medium, small and micro enterprises’ export business. (As is coordinated by the Ministry of Finance, all local people’s governments, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs, the State Administration of Taxation, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Administration of Foreign Exchange shall take their assigned responsibilities). We can make good use of dedicated funds for foreign trade and economic development, guidance funds for innovation and development of services & trade, and other existing channels, to support cross-border e-commerce platforms, cross-border logistics, and overseas warehouse construction. (As is coordinated by the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, China Banking Regulatory Commission, the Export-Import Bank of China, China Banking Regulatory Commission and China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation shall take their assigned responsibilities). The Administrative Regulations on Comprehensive Foreign Trade Services Corporation-Commissioned Tax Rebate should be thoroughly implemented, to constantly optimize tax-rebate services, and sustainably speed up tax-rebate progress. More efforts shall be made to cultivate comprehensive foreign trade services providers’ credit, helping more up-to-standard integrated foreign trade services firms to be Authorized Economic Operators (AEOs). (The Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation shall take their assigned responsibilities).  

VI. Guide processing trade to have gradient transfer. Local places under favorable conditions are encouraged to support processing trade’s gradient transfer through funds and other modes in light of their local status quo. A group of processing trade industrial parks should be jointly built by the East, and the Middle & West and Northeast regions. With the help of China Processing Trade Products Fair and other platforms, complete industrial transfer collaboration liaison mechanism should be established. The Middle and West, and the Northeast are encouraged to exploit their advantages to the full to take labor-intensive foreign trade industry. (All local people’s governments, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Commerce shall take their assigned responsibilities).

VII. Further support labor-intensive enterprises. Labor-intensive export-oriented enterprises in textile, clothing, furniture, footwear, plastic products, bags & suitcases, toys, dimension stones, agricultural produces, and consumer electronics should be further supported, based on various inclusive policies in tax & fees reduction, export credit, export credit insurance, retaining employment, and power & water consumption. (All local people’s governments, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources & Social Security, the Ministry of Commerce, the People’s Bank of China, the State Administration of Taxation, China Banking Regulatory Commission, Export-Import Bank of China, and China Banking Regulatory Commission shall take their assigned responsibilities).

VIII. Assist large backbone foreign trade enterprises to overcome their difficulties. We can identify and prepare a list of large backbone foreign trade enterprises, sort out these enterprises’ and their supporting firms’ demand, and establish relevant approval procedures to facilitate their efforts to overcome difficulties in their production and operation, with support for each import and export link and “one policy for one enterprise” specific services. We should investigate and work out support measures for backbone foreign trade enterprises by further accelerating the export-rebates procedures. (As is coordinated by the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the General Administration of Customs, the State Administration of Taxation, the Import-Export Bank of China, China Banking Regulatory Commission and China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation shall take their assigned responsibilities).

IX. Expand online channels for foreign trade. “Online one country, one show” should be promoted to support and encourage those capable and willing local governments and key industry associations to launch online trade show. Foreign trade and economy-dedicated funds should be utilized well to support medium and small foreign trade enterprises to exploit foreign markets and take part in online and offline trade shows within specified scope. Domestic business associations, institutions functioning abroad, and overseas Chinese-invested enterprises associations should be given play to, so that they can contact foreign business associations and help export enterprises to connect with more overseas buyers. (All local people’s governments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Commerce shall take their assigned responsibilities).  

X. Further facilitate customs clearance. We should continuously better business environment of the ports, keep the shortened overall duration for customs clearance, and further standardize and lower compliance costs for export. Around the ports under favorable conditions, the “one-stop sunshine prices” should be popularized, to promote port charges’ transparency and comparability. More measures should be taken to provide technical and trade consultancy services for export enterprises, assisting them to exploit overseas markets. We should boost and expand oil & oilseeds, meat, and dairy products market access, facilitating import and ensure market supplies. (The General Administration of Customs shall take this responsibility.)

XI. Provide more convenience for foreign commercial personnel. On the premises of strict anti-epidemic measures, we should continue to negotiate with relevant countries to establish “fast channels”, providing convenience for foreign trade and investment enterprises’ important business, logistics, production and urgently needed technical services personnel to enter and leave China. “Fast channels” should be continuously provided for all eligible foreign people to enter China for work or production. Referring to relevant procedures for the “fast channels”, and sticking to the principles of “epidemic prevention comes first, and essential pass should be ensured, with duty designated to specific personnel, to facilitate convenience”, we should have proper arrangements for those foreign people to come to China for necessary economic & trade, scientific and technological and other activities. Local governments, in light of local market procurement and trade features, establish dedicated channels to facilitate foreign businessmen’s entering the market for procurement, and those permanent resident foreign businessmen should be given priority in terms of arrangement for returning to China for business. On the premises of anti-epidemic measures, we can gradually resume china and foreign personnel exchange in an orderly manner. Based on the State Council’s joint prevention and control mechanism deployment, we can increase international passenger flights by stages. Under the conditions of complete anti-epidemic certification, we can duly increase civil aviation flights with major investment source regions, to facilitate foreign commercial personnel’s access to China. (All local people’s governments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, the Immigration Office, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China shall take their assigned responsibilities).  

XII. Provide finance support for key foreign-invested enterprises. The present 1.5 trillion RMB Yuan special support for reloan and rediscount are equally applicable to foreign-invested enterprises. More finance support should be given to those key foreign-invested enterprises, and the 570 billion RMB Yuan for newly added loan from the Import-Export Bank of China can be used to vigorously support eligible key foreign-invested enterprises. All provincial, autonomous region and municipality commerce departments should get a clear picture of the financing demand and operation status of all key foreign-invested enterprises under their administration, timely share their information with banks and other financial institutions, enhance all foreign investors corporate associations and other organizations’ cooperation with banking financial institutions, to promote “bank-enterprise connection”, so that the banking financial institutions can vigorously ensure the financing demand of key foreign-invested enterprises based on the market principle. (All local people’s governments, the Bank of China, the Ministry of Commerce, China Insurance Regulatory Commission, and the Import-Export Bank of China shall take their assigned responsibilities).

XIII. Provide better support services for key foreign-invested projects. For those key foreign-invested projects with total investment of USD 100 million or above, we should prepare a list to get to know their demand of all links before, during and after construction, and treat them equally by providing services guarantee for sea water space, land and energy consumption as well as environment protection. (All local people’s governments, the Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Ecological Environment shall take their assigned responsibilities).

XIV. Encourage more foreign-investment into high- and new-tech enterprises. We should facilitate the procedures for high and new-tech enterprises’ identification management and services, and further promote identification training and policy promotion & interpretation to facilitate foreign-invested enterprises’ application for high and new-tech enterprise identity. We should pay close attention to providing policy services for those enterprises in the anti-epidemic and other emergency fields, attracting more foreign investment into the fields like high and new-tech and people’s livelihood & health care. (As is coordinated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation shall take their assigned responsibilities).  

XV. Lower the preferential policy threshold for foreign-invested R&D centers. We can lower the full-time research and experimental development personnel requirements for foreign-invested R&D centers to enjoy relevant sci-tech innovation and import taxation policies, encouraging foreign investors to establish R&D centers in China to attract higher quality investments. (As coordinated by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Taxation shall take their assigned responsibilities).

All regions and sectors shall uphold the guidance of Xi Jinping’s Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, enhance our “political consciousness, big-picture consciousness, core consciousness and alignment consciousness”, hold firm our socialist “road confidence, theoretical confidence, institutional confidence and cultural confidence”, and maintain “the core leadership of President Xi Jinping and the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee”, to stay steadfast in carrying out the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, to have a bigger picture, take a vigorous action and implement firmly. Various regions should consider their actual situation, work out complete supporting measures, and meticulously mobilize efforts for implementation, to promote various policies’ local practical and effective applications. All sectors shall take their assigned responsibilities, coordinate with each other and make concerted efforts, to ensure practical implementation of various policies.

General Office of the State Council

August 5, 2020

(Abridged version)