On November 15, at the fourth leaders' meeting of the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" (hereinafter referred to as "RCEP"), under the witness of leaders of 15 countries, the trade ministers of various countries formally signed the RCEP agreement. This marks that the free trade zone with the largest population, the largest economic and trade scale, and the most development potential in the world has officially set sail.
Currently, Guangzhou is adhering to the strategy of expanding domestic demand, accelerating the construction of an international consumption center city, a high-end product supply center, and a comprehensive gateway hub that connects domestic and foreign markets, and is striving to build an important hub city and international exchange center for the "Belt and Road". Now, what development opportunities will the signing of RCEP bring to Guangzhou to further deepen its opening-up and create a "dual cycle" strategic fulcrum?
Many business representatives believe that while RCEP will bring lower tariff dividends, it will also create new market demand, thereby boosting the overall competitiveness of enterprises in foreign trade. Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that RCEP is a good thing for all member states to jointly expand the "cooperation cake" and achieve win-win results.
Opportunities: Short-term cost reductions, long-term growth promotion
“Our first concern is the reduction of tariffs.” Li Yong, general manager of Gaojie Logistics, said frankly that from the perspective of logistics companies, the benefits of tariffs released in RCEP receive the most attention.
RCEP proposes that after the agreement takes effect, more than 90% of the goods trade in the region will eventually achieve zero tariffs, and the tax will be reduced to zero immediately and the tax will be reduced to zero within ten years, so that the RCEP free trade zone is expected to honor all goods in a relatively short time. Commitment to trade liberalization.
Li Yong revealed that companies have been deployed in Vietnam and Myanmar since 2018, but due to tariff issues, they have been unable to expand their operations. "If RCEP can achieve concrete landing and reduce the import and export tariffs of enterprises, it can help us accelerate the pace of opening up the market." At the same time, Gaojie Logistics also plans to relocate in the middle of Southeast Asian countries, based on the domestic cycle, and expand the domestic market. International double loop.
Zhuo Zhi's cross-border e-commerce executive president Li Jinling and Li Yong's views coincide. "Reducing tariffs will help us cut costs on a large scale and bring about an increase in foreign trade." From a long-term perspective, Li Jinling believes that the opportunities that RCEP brings to enterprises lies in the field of service trade, which will bring more service trade to enterprises. Large room for growth.
"Foreign trade looks at the overall cost of the entire chain. What we have to do next is to take advantage of RCEP's "dongfeng" to digitally open up the foreign trade service chain between RCEP member countries, and build a high-speed foreign trade service between markets “Highway” is not just an advantage in tariff costs.” Li Jinling said that after companies are empowered by digitalization, they will have higher service efficiency and lower costs. “In the future, the competition between countries and companies will be service capabilities. Whose service capabilities Higher, the more obvious the advantage of who gets customers."
She also mentioned that in the process of RCEP landing, trade facilitation will bring more "investment liberalization". "Trade between 15 countries is free, investment is free, and the flow of goods is free."
Li Jinling believes that the premise of freedom is to have more rules. "With this rule, we, as a service provider in the field of foreign trade, We must think about how to use digital methods to make the service more compatible and match the new rules formed by RCEP, so that the goods can really circulate freely in the "friend circle". This is RCEP brings us new opportunities."
engaged Guangzhou Kanghong Information Technology Co., Ltd., which imports health products overseas, is particularly concerned about the breakthrough of RCEP in the field of Sino-Japanese trade.
"For a pure foreign trade company like us, RCEP's positive role will be very obvious. Over 90% of the products may be included in the scope of zero tariffs, which means that consumers can buy more cost-effective products. It will effectively promote the increase of our sales." Hu Zhinan, director of Kanghong Commodity Center, said that RCEP will promote companies to build a closed-loop pharmaceutical e-commerce chain covering brand services, e-commerce operations and other links, and create a cross-border pharmaceutical ecosystem.
Hu Zhinan revealed that the signing of RCEP also gave the company the idea of extending the supply chain. “Our supply chain is already relatively complete in Japan, and we will also consider setting up new locations in Australia.”
Foundation: ASEAN is firmly in Guangzhou's foreign trade No. 1 in import and export share
"We are almost with RAll member states in CEP have trade relations, among which the ties with Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand are very close, accounting for 50% to 60% of our business volume. "Li Jinling said that as a leading cross-border e-commerce supply chain company in China, Zhuozhi's foreign trade business covers products such as cosmetics, daily chemicals, food and health care, maternal and child products, and has been deployed globally.
cross-border e-commerce Regarded as the first industry to enjoy the RCEP policy dividend, this is also a “new force” that Guangzhou has continuously risen in the foreign trade field in recent years.
Guangzhou’s cross-border e-commerce public service platform has pioneered the e-commerce export return function in the country, and Nansha The district has been selected to establish 10 new import trade promotion innovation demonstration zones across the country, and grant cross-border e-commerce companies a maximum of 1 million yuan in subsidies... With multiple policy dividends superimposed, Guangzhou cross-border e-commerce has shown a strong driving force for global trading.
During the "Double 11" period (November 1-11), the Guangzhou cross-border e-commerce public service platform handled over 12.62 million tickets for import and export business, with an amount exceeding 3.3 billion yuan (of which the total import volume was close to 6.5 million 60% of Guangdong’s total imports; total exports exceeded 6.12 million votes), 1.4 times the peak of last year’s “Double 11”, an increase of 39% year-on-year.
At present, Guangzhou has cultivated Vipshop, onion, lollipop, A group of leading cross-border e-commerce companies such as Zhuozhi, Gaojie, COSCO, Hongjie, Guoxiang, etc., through the customs cross-border e-commerce platform, the import and export scale has increased by 25 times from 2014 to 2019, and the city's cross-border e-commerce imports continue First in the country in 5 years.
The new business model represented by cross-border e-commerce has become the epitome of the continuous innovation of Guangzhou's foreign trade in recent years; the new market represented by ASEAN has become the new growth pole of Guangzhou's foreign trade.
ASEAN has firmly ranked first in Guangzhou's foreign trade import and export share.
In terms of corporate investment, Guangdong Tianxunda Mining Development Co., Ltd. plans to establish China-Laos United Steel (Laos) Industrial Co., Ltd. in Laos, which is the first in Laos history. The blast furnace steel project has been approved by the State Council of Laos as a national key project in Laos. It is one of the largest “Belt and Road” investment projects in Guangdong Province in 2020. Prior to this, Jingxin Communication System (China) Co., Ltd. invested US$126 million in the merger and acquisition in Laos ETL telecommunications companies engaged in telecommunications services have become the largest telecommunications service project in Guangzhou’s foreign investment. In terms of external transportation, in the first half of this year, Guangzhou Port Group seized the market opportunities of the rapid development of ASEAN countries, expanded routes within the Asian region, and added international There are 12 liner routes. Among them, the sea and land Maersk Russia Southeast Asia route maiden voyage to Nansha Port of Guangzhou Port; the addition of 4 Southeast Asian routes has a positive effect on the import of fruits and rubber wood. Z1z
data shows that in the first three quarters of this year, Guangzhou and ASEAN Imports and exports of 112.9 billion yuan, an increase of 25.9%, drove a 3.3% increase in foreign trade imports and exports; imports and exports to Oceania increased by 13.9%, higher than the overall level of the city.
During the same period, Guangzhou's imports and exports to countries and regions along the “Belt and Road” were 190.85 billion Yuan, an increase of 15.3%, which is 16.7 percentage points higher than the overall level of the city.
Waiting: Guangzhou is moving towards a higher level of open cooperation
In the field of economics, "Pareto Optimal" is used to describe "making at least one person better without making anyone worse." Ideal state of resource allocation. In Bai Ming's view, the RCEP signed this time fits this state.
According to the content of RCEP, the tariff concessions among members are mainly based on the commitment to immediately reduce tariffs to zero tariffs, and to reduce tariffs to zero tariffs within ten years. At the same time, they include the promotion of customs facilitation and the promotion of investment policy transparency. Free trade between member states opens up a barrier-free "green channel".
"The economic development levels of 15 countries are very different, and it is difficult to take care of the interests of all parties. The more countries that participate, the more difficult it is for everyone to adjust. The signing of RCEP is the product of mutual benefit and win-win results for all countries." Bai Ming said, " Every country can benefit from RCEP without losing its interests.” Z1z
focused on Guangzhou. Bai Ming believes that as a "millennium business capital", Guangzhou's concern should not be limited to tariff reduction, but Looking forward to a broader market and higher-level development opportunities.
"The focus is on extending the industrial chain and supply chain." Bai Ming analyzed that among the 15 countries that signed the RCEP, the biggest breakthrough and bright spot is the addition of two pairs of China, Japan, Japan and South Korea.Free trade relations between important countries. "Japan, in particular, will bring higher quality cooperation opportunities to Guangzhou."
Currently, Japan has become the third largest source of actually used foreign capital in Guangzhou (after Hong Kong and Singapore). Bai Ming mentioned that the cooperation between GAC Honda and GAC Toyota has laid a good foundation. With the signing and official landing of RCEP, Guangzhou may form closer ties with the Japanese market in the future and broaden the fields and dimensions of cooperation between enterprises.
With the opening of the door to the outside world, the signing of RCEP integrates the high-quality production resources of the member states, lowers the threshold of tariffs and resource allocation, and promotes countries to expand the market for high-end products, increase employment, and increase the level of industrial capital output. Release policy dividends.
Guangzhou is focusing on building a central node of smooth domestic large circulation, connecting domestic and international dual circulation strategic fulcrums, leading and promoting the construction of a new development pattern. Bai Ming said that the challenges and opportunities in Guangzhou will coexist in the future. RCEP will lower the barriers to trade and will force Guangzhou enterprises to upgrade themselves.
"After the RCEP is signed, who can get more development opportunities depends on whose business environment is better and more competitive." Bai Ming believes that competitive companies in RCEP countries will "get their own way" to find Own "value depression" to eliminate backward production capacity.
For Guangzhou, the dividends brought by RCEP may first be reflected in the fields of port shipping, airport, foreign trade, and cross-border logistics. The morning session on November 17 showed that Guangzhou Port and Baiyun Airport have ushered in varying degrees of growth.
link: What is RCEP?
RCEP is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (English: Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership). The member countries include 10 ASEAN countries and China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. RCEP includes 20 chapters, covering comprehensive market access commitments for goods, services, and investment. The goal is to jointly establish a modern, comprehensive, high-quality, and mutually beneficial economic partnership cooperation framework to promote regional trade and investment growth. And contribute to global economic development.
[Southern + reporter] Huang Shumin
[trainee reporter] Zhong Xiaoyu
[Author] Huang Shumin; Zhong Xiaoyu
[Source] Southern Press Media Group South + Client
