NPC Deputies Discuss Accelerating Cotton Reform

A few days after the opening of the four session of the Twelfth National People's Congress, it has entered the stage of delegations' deliberation and group discussion.

On the afternoon of March 7th, at the panel discussion of the delegation of Shandong, Zhang Shiping, chairman of the National People's Congress and chairman of Shandong Wei Qiao Textile Group Co., Ltd., made the key speech.

As the leading representative of the national cotton textile industry, he expressed his strong desire to speed up the development of the cotton textile industry and maintain the competitiveness of the cotton textile industry in the international conference, and put forward a call for liberalized cotton import restrictions.

He said that since the textile industry has been an important livelihood industry in China, it has absorbed more than 2000 people in direct employment, and the number of indirect employment has reached 180 million people. Textile is still a pillar industry of China's exports. In 2015, the volume of import and export trade reached 245849 billion yuan. The textile industry has made great contributions to China's social harmony and stability and export earning.

From the aspects of technological progress and product quality, China made cotton textiles with a good reputation in the world.

In the past five years, due to the global economic slowdown, the growth of textile and garment industry has slowed down, and the cotton textile industry has been affected by many factors, such as weak demand at home and abroad, the adjustment of cotton policy and the control of cotton quota management. The development of the industry is very difficult. At present, only a small profit level has been maintained. Many small and medium-sized enterprises have suffered serious losses, which not only affects the stability of the employment of migrant workers, but also restricts the improvement of the wage income level of migrant workers.

He pointed out that at present, the main difficulties faced by the development of China's cotton textile industry lie in the following three aspects:

The huge cotton price has broken down the spinning enterprises.

Since 2011, the state has implemented the temporary cotton purchase and storage policy for three consecutive years, and the difference between the inside and outside cotton prices has increased to 5000 yuan / ton. Under the cotton quota system, domestic cotton textile enterprises have to bear high production costs. At this time, a large number of cheap India and Pakistan cotton yarns pour into the domestic market.

In 2013, a large number of small and medium sized enterprises with medium and low count cotton yarn were unable to operate normally due to poor capital turnover and lack of orders.

According to customs statistics, the number of imported yarn reached 2 million 340 thousand tons in 2015, a net increase of 1 million 530 thousand tons compared with 2011, of which 30 ~47 combed cotton imports increased particularly, and imported yarn gradually occupied the middle and high yarn market.

The contradiction between supply and demand of cotton is increasingly prominent.

The state has imposed quota management on imported cotton, and the State Cotton temporary storage and storage policy has been implemented for three years, storing about 10000000 tons of national cotton reserves to digest these stocks of cotton. Since 2013, the state has significantly reduced the quota of cotton imports nationwide, resulting in enterprises unable to import large quantities of high-quality imported cotton.

Because of the non marketization of cotton supply, cotton farmers do not pay enough attention to cotton quality, and cotton seeds, climate and other reasons, the quality of cotton in China is declining, which can not meet the requirements of spinning production, and the contradiction between supply and demand of cotton is prominent.

Enterprises have to increase the processing capacity of non cotton fibers such as chemical fiber and staple fiber, together with the substitution of imported cotton yarn to cotton, and the domestic demand for cotton decreases year by year.

According to statistics, China's cotton processing volume was 6 million 750 thousand tons in 2015, which was reduced by more than 35% compared with 2011.

The vicious circle of cotton farmers' interests can not be guaranteed, and the sustainable development of cotton spinning industry can not be mentioned.

In fact, cotton textiles still occupy the dominant position in the market demand. According to statistics, the world's cotton consumption is more than 24 million tons. Therefore, China's cotton textile industry has great potential for cotton processing, and the demand for high-quality cotton is very urgent.

In the third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the party put forward that the market should play a decisive role in the allocation of resources and establish fair, open and pparent market rules.

In May 2015, the State Council issued the work plan of promoting decentralization and decentralization in 2015 and changing government functions. It clearly stated that we should effectively release the vitality of the market, stimulate social creativity, expand employment and promote opening to the outside world.

In order to create a good operation environment for enterprises and curb the impact of unfavorable factors on the smooth development of the industry as soon as possible, it is suggested to speed up the reform of the cotton system, reduce the intervention of policies on the cotton market, and realize the marketization of cotton upstream and downstream.

It is hoped that the state will also attach great importance to and solve this problem from the angle of supporting the pformation and upgrading of the cotton textile industry, paying attention to the employment stability of migrant workers and increasing the income of workers in labor-intensive industries.

It is suggested that the state should gradually cancel the import quota of cotton so that enterprises can make full use of international cotton resources, seize the international textile market, and enhance their competitiveness in the international market.

In the long run, only by supporting the development of textile enterprises and expanding the quantity of cotton, can the state really protect the interests of cotton farmers and promote cotton planting.

Before the abolition of the quotas for cotton imports, it is proposed to reform the management mode of cotton quotas, to implement the "processing system" for processing trade quotas, and to export as many cotton products as possible, taking export performance as the main content of the quota control of cotton processing trade, and increasing the number of general trade quotas according to market demand.

If the import quota management of cotton is not abolished, it is suggested that the same management method should be applied to imported cotton yarns and cotton grey fabrics.

The international competitiveness of cotton textiles has been weakened.

In the past five years, China

Due to the high cost of raw materials and labor, the price advantage of products has been continuously weakened. In 2015, the export volume of China's cotton textile and clothing decreased by 9.7% over the same period last year, 5.6 percentage points lower than that in 2014.

Countries such as India, Pakistan and Vietnam.

Relying on the advantages of low cost such as cotton and labor, plus the comparative advantage of zero tariff in developed countries, the development of textile industry is very fast. Besides the spinning industry is very active, its fabric and clothing industry are also growing rapidly. In the future, the competition between China's cotton textile industry and neighboring countries will become increasingly fierce.

To this end, in order to improve the marketization of China's cotton textile industry and speed up the reform of the cotton system, Zhang Shiping put forward the following suggestions: