Month: July 2020

(China Daily)07:54, August 09, 2019

Domestic enterprises accelerate pace of innovation amid friction between China, US

The structure of Chinas foreign trade will continue to improve with more flexibility in the second half of this year due to its institutional, industrial and market advantages, officials and experts said on Thursday.

Li Kuiwen, a spokesman for the General Administration of Customs Department of Statistics, said China has not only increased its market share with major economies such as the European Union this year, but its trade volume with emerging markets has also notably surged.

Lis remark came after the administration announced earlier on Thursday that Chinas foreign trade grew 4.2 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of the year to 17.41 trillion yuan ($2.47 trillion).

The EU remained Chinas largest trading partner between January and July, with bilateral trade volume up 10.8 percent year-on-year to 2.72 trillion yuan, followed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, up 11.3 percent to 2.35 trillion yuan, and the United States, down 8.1 percent to 2.1 trillion yuan.

To offset the negative impact caused by the Sino-US trade dispute, potential for trade cooperation between China and economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative such as ASEAN, Russia and Italy has been further unleashed this year, said Chen Bin, executive vice-president of the China Machinery Industry Federation.

Chen said the trade dispute between China and the US has prompted Chinese enterprises to accelerate their pace of innovation to break external restrictions in many fields such as semiconductors and new materials, as well as expand their global presence at a notable pace.

Yan Min, a division head at the State Information Centers Department of Economic Forecasting, said Chinas diversified trade development 鈥?exploring new markets and generating fresh demand 鈥?has become a driving force for its foreign trade expansion and created room for the country to maintain stable trade growth.

New measures to stabilize trade can help ease the burdens of Chinese exporters and enhance their capabilities to address external uncertainties and boost their confidence, Yan said.

According to the General Administration of Customs, Chinas exports increased 6.7 percent year-on-year to 9.48 trillion yuan in the first seven months, while imports grew 1.3 percent to 7.93 trillion yuan. Its trade surplus widened by 47.4 percent year-on-year to 1.55 trillion yuan during the same period.

Chinas trade with BRI economies totaled 5.03 trillion yuan, up 10.2 percent year-on-year, about 6 percentage points higher than the overall pace, accounting for 28.9 percent of Chinas total trade volume.

Many Chinese exporters are further tapping overseas markets. For instance, Dongfeng Motors has already made plans to enter the European market next year.

The company, in Wuhan, Hubei province, said it aims to export 77,500 vehicles this year, covering a wide range of markets including South America, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

We saw growing profit in South America last year, especially from key markets such as Chile, Argentina, Ecuador and Peru, said Li Junzhi, head of Dongfengs international business department.

Chinas trade liberalization efforts, such as the expansion of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone and the hosting of the second China International Import Expo, scheduled for November, will also help the country to put its foreign trade on a firmer footing, said Wei Jianguo, vice-president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

He said the expected conclusion of the talks of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a free trade mechanism attended by ASEAN, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India, will also help expand Chinas foreign trade activities.

Over two-thirds of the RCEP negotiations on bilateral market access have been completed, and negotiations on the remaining parts are being actively pushed forward, the Ministry of Commerce said late last month.

If the RCEP deal can be sealed, it will create one of the worlds largest trading blocs, accounting for 45 percent of the worlds population, 40 percent of global trade and around one-third of the worlds GDP.

(Xinhua)08:34, August 09, 2019

SHENZHEN, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — Chinas tech giant Huawei said Thursday it will continue to challenge the constitutionality of the latest U.S. ban on agencies from purchasing the companys telecom gears.

The U.S. government on Wednesday issued an interim regulation, prohibiting its federal agencies from purchasing telecommunications equipment and services from five Chinese companies, including Huawei, according to an official website run by General Services Administration, the U.S. government agency responsible for contracting.

In a media statement, the Shenzhen-based company called the action not unexpected as it is the continued promulgation of the rules laid out by the National Defense Administration Act (NDAA) of 2019.

The NDAA, signed by President Donald Trump last year, included a ban on U.S. government agencies and those receiving federal grants and loans from doing business with Huawei and companies substantially using Huawei products.

The NDAA law and its implementing provisions will do nothing to ensure the protection of U.S. telecom networks and systems and rather is a trade barrier based on country-of-origin, the company said.

Huawei said it will continue to challenge the constitutionality of the ban in the U.S. federal court.

Ultimately, it will be rural citizens across the U.S. that will be most negatively impacted as the networks they use for digital connectivity rely on Huawei, the company said.

On May 27, Song Liuping, Huaweis chief legal officer, wrote in an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal that Huawei had sued and would file a motion for summary judgment asking a U.S. court to declare the NDAA law unconstitutional.

(Xinhua)08:37, August 09, 2019

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — China will take a series of measures to support the development of the platform economy as the country aims to leverage internet-based technologies and services to boost economic growth.

The government will cut red tape for business registration of related companies, with efforts to be made to improve conditions for market access and lower compliance costs for such companies, according to a guideline released by the general office of the State Council recently.

A new regulation approach will be developed to help nurture the sectors growth while ensuring fair market competition, with innovated oversight to accommodate inclusiveness and prudence, said the guideline.

Developing new forms of platform economy is also encouraged for expedited fostering of new drivers for growth in this regard.

The integration of internet technologies and Internet of Things with manufacturing, entrepreneurship as well as services in fields like medical care, education and tourism will be encouraged.

Efforts will also be made to provide a favorable environment for the platform economy by creating an integrated data-sharing system across the public and private sectors and increasing transparency of the credit information sharing platform nationwide.

The guideline also calls for better protection of legitimate rights for product and service providers, as well as for consumers in the platform economy.

The latest policy push came after China unveiled an earlier guideline on facilitating the sector in late February, which promised to foster a batch of 100-billion-yuan (about 14.19 billion U.S. dollars) commodity markets by 2020.

(Xinhua)08:37, August 09, 2019

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — There is no plan to significantly ease overseas investors access to the Chinese equity-index futures market, the countrys top securities regulator said Thursday.

The report is groundless, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement in response to a Bloomberg report.

China will further expand the commodity futures market in an orderly manner and support the introduction of more specific varieties, the statement said, adding that related work is steadily underway.

Such efforts aim to improve the market operation quality and service to the real economy instead of attracting more overseas capital inflow, the statement pointed out.

China has opened commodity futures including crude oil, iron ore, PTA and TSR 20 rubber to international investors in its bid to promote financial opening-up.

(Xinhua)08:38, August 09, 2019

SHANGHAI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — A number of tech companies have announced their plans to launch new high-tech products during the upcoming second China International Import Expo (CIIE) slated to take place this November in Shanghai.

More than 200 overseas exhibitors and local purchasers gathered in a match-making event to announce their debut programs before the expo.

Waldrich Coburg Machine Tool Enterprise, a competitive player in large machine tool manufacturing headquartered in Germany, will bring its new model of milling machine to China for the first time at the CIIE.

Fujifilm plans to launch its new anti-fog camera film at the second expo and has expanded its exhibition area by 30 percent given last years success, said Hironobu Taketomi, president and CEO of Fujifilm (China) Investment Co., Ltd.

A total of 172 countries, regions and international organizations and more than 3,600 enterprises participated in the first CIIE, held from Nov. 5 to 10 in 2018 in Shanghai.

During the first CIIE, deals for intended one-year purchases of goods and services totaled 57.83 billion U.S. dollars among which the sales of high-end smart equipment accounted for over 28 percent.