Ministry Of Commerce: Stabilizing Export Policies Of Textiles And Other Industries

The Ministry of commerce is working with other departments to work out relevant plans to prevent a sharp drop in exports, especially in the labor-intensive industries such as agricultural products, light industries and textiles.

This is April 27th, when a foreign trade official of the Ministry of Commerce disclosed the closed door meeting with foreign trade enterprises at the annual meeting of China Import and export enterprise.

A business representative who participated in the closed door meeting on the same day reported that the official said on the same day that from the survey of the Ministry of Commerce for several months and involving many industries and provinces, we could draw three conclusions: the risk increased at home and abroad this year, the superposition of the internal and external unfavorable factors has begun to appear, and the pressure on enterprises has increased.

On the previous 26 days, Fu Ziying, Vice Minister of Commerce, also said at the annual meeting that China must stabilize export of labor intensive industries, especially maintain steady growth in textile and clothing trade, and allow enterprises to set aside time for product upgrading and industrial pformation.

For export enterprises with market, orders and efficiency, the state should give necessary credit support.

The Ministry of Commerce has found that six factors affect foreign trade. Since the end of last year, the Ministry of Commerce has conducted two rounds of research on the foreign trade situation.

In December 2007, all the vice ministers of Commerce and the new minister Chen Deming went to 15 provinces and municipalities nationwide. After that, Chen Deming put forward in his business work conference to "maintain stable export growth".

After the Spring Festival, a number of bureaus and subordinate associations of the Ministry of Commerce went to various provinces and cities to investigate. During the Canton Fair, Chen Deming went to investigate the foreign trade enterprises' order.

The officials said that the export enterprises were probably affected by six unfavorable factors.

First of all, external demand is declining.

The impact of the subprime mortgage crisis on the US economy has directly affected the export of Chinese enterprises.

According to the official statistics, this year's Canton Fair statistics show that compared with the previous Canton Fair, the number of us businessmen dropped to 13.5% this year, the turnover volume dropped by 9.9%, the number of merchants in Europe dropped by 11.4%, and the turnover decreased by 4.9%.

The turnover of the first phase of textile and clothing decreased by 11.4%.

Second, the trade environment has deteriorated.

In the first quarter of this year, the number of anti-dumping and countervailing investigations initiated by other countries against Chinese products continued to rise.

At the same time, product safety problems continue to perplex Chinese enterprises.

According to the China Light Industry Export Association, China's toy orders to the US will drop by two or three this year.

Customs statistics show that China's toy exports to the US have dropped by 5.8% in the first quarter.

In the first quarter, Shandong's exports of agricultural products to Japan dropped by 28%.

Third, RMB appreciation is accelerating.

The official disclosed that there are provinces and cities reflected in the research process, and the current RMB appreciation factor has affected the export profits of 1/3.

Long contract period, small and medium-sized enterprises, labor intensive enterprises feel particularly obvious, causing enterprises to dare to take orders.

According to a survey conducted by 1008 enterprises with key links between the Ministry of Commerce, only 31.6% of enterprises in the first quarter indicated that orders continued to grow.

Fourth, labor and other enterprises increased production costs.

Some enterprises in the eastern provinces reflect to the Ministry of commerce research group that the cost of labor has increased by 20% after the Spring Festival.

The Wenzhou Municipal Development and Reform Commission Statistics said that after the implementation of the new labor contract law and the cost of insurance for workers, the average cost for enterprises to pay for individual workers increased by 5816 yuan per year.

Fifth, monetary tightening affects enterprises.

In the choice of banks, foreign trade enterprises are mostly at the end of choice because of their industry attributes, so it is difficult to obtain loans from banks. Therefore, a large number of enterprises have problems in capital flow and have to be in a semi shutdown state or turn to private lending relying on high interest rates.

Sixth, the export tax rebate and other policy implications.

In 2007, in order to reduce the surplus, China once lowered or abolished the export tax rebates for 2831 commodities, including clothing, shoes, bags and other types of labor-intensive products.

The policy of light textile and agricultural products, or the adjustment of "China's long-term reliance on low factor cost advantages to participate in market competition, and relying on low prices to occupy the international market, may be gone forever."

In April 26th, Fu Ziying said at the annual meeting of import and export enterprises.

Fu Ziying said on the same day that China's policy orientation to optimize export commodity structure and change export growth mode will not change. It will insist on maintaining pressure and continue to make rational use of export rebates, tariffs, market access and other means, and resolutely reduce exports of high pollution, high energy consumption and resource products. The former commerce ministry officials said that the growth of mechanical and electrical products is basically stable from the data statistics of the first quarter, but the situation of light textile products is grim, and the growth rate of the US and European markets is relatively large.

She said that in accordance with the principle of "maintaining pressure", the export of products of "two high and one capital" should be firmly suppressed, but the export of labor-intensive products needs to be stable.

She pointed out that labor-intensive products mainly refer to agricultural products and light textile products.

She said that the government will work out relevant plans to increase the flexibility of policies and prevent the export of this part of the products from going up and down.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the recent China Textile Industry Association has reported to the relevant leaders of the State Council on the investigation, hoping that the state will give some policy support.

At present, the industry's voice is bigger, it is hoped that the export rebate rate of textile and clothing will be adjusted back to two points, leaving a certain profit margin for enterprises.

On April 27th, Wang Yu, deputy director of the division of monetary policy of the people's Bank of China, said that the central bank also organized an investigation of the current economic situation, saying that the macroeconomic situation in the first quarter was better than expected, and that China's economy was generally cautiously optimistic.

He said that some problems reflected by enterprises need specific industrial policies and credit policy guidance.