Supply Chain: Clothing Accessories Buttons To Gaoding How Wenzhou Enterprises Leverage The Foreign Trade Market

According to the data of the General Administration of Customs, in the first five months of this year, the import and export of private enterprises reached 9.58 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.5%, accounting for 54.7% of China's total foreign trade value, 2.6 percentage points higher than the same period last year. When it comes to the development of private economy, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, is an indispensable coordinate. In Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, the contribution proportion of private economy to GDP, the proportion of industrial added value, the proportion of employees, and the proportion of taxes are all more than 90%.

　　 A small button moves the big market

When we arrived in Wenzhou, our first stop was an archive, where the country's first business license for self-employed businesses was stored. The name of the head of the household was Zhang Huamei. At that time, the product Zhang Huamei sold was buttons. When finding Aunt Zhang in a garment surface accessories base in Wenzhou, she was negotiating a button business with two customers in Kazakhstan.

In 1980, Wenzhou issued the first batch of 1844 business licenses for individual businesses nationwide. In the next two years, more than 100000 Wenzhou people obtained business licenses for self-employed businesses, many of whom became the first batch of "10000 yuan households" in China. For more than 40 years, Zhang Huamei has changed four or five business licenses, but she is still engaged in her old business.

In this 100 square meter store, there are thousands of buttons with different materials and specifications.

In 1983, the first specialized small commodity market in rural China was born in Qiaotou Town, Wenzhou, and Qiaotou Town became "China's Button City". At present, half of the more than 700 manufacturing enterprises in Qiaotou Town are button manufacturing enterprises.

Resin buttons, fruit buttons, ox horn buttons... Today's Wenzhou button enterprises have opened a "new blue ocean" of industrial development through quality improvement and upgrading.

According to local statistics, by the end of 2023, Qiaotou Town has about 16000 employees in the button industry, with an annual production of about 60 billion buttons and more than 10000 categories, accounting for 50% of the country's market share and 30% of the world's market share. Over the past 40 years, Wenzhou's button industry has achieved leapfrog development from scratch and from small to large through persistent innovation.

From buttons to high-end customized clothing

Small items achieve great development

Over the past 40 years, based on buttons, Wenzhou has continuously extended its industrial chain and improved its value chain, formed an industrial cluster integrating zippers, ribbons, lace and other clothing accessories, and successfully established "China's clothing accessories export base". From a button to a set of high-end customized clothing, Wenzhou, which now has the national brand golden card of "China's clothing customization industry base", is one of the five major clothing industry clusters in China. Among them, high-quality customized suits accounted for 90% of the national market share, and high-end suits accounted for half of the country.

Just last month, Wenzhou officially released the High Quality Development Plan for Wenzhou's Clothing Industry. How can Wenzhou's clothing industry achieve high-quality development?

Wenzhou Elephant City International Garment Accessories Center, which integrates garment accessories market, R&D design and e-commerce services, aims to build a high-end, professional and comprehensive garment industry chain center in Wenzhou.

There are more than 2700 garment enterprises in Wenzhou, with men's clothing accounting for about 70% and women's clothing and children's clothing accounting for about 30%.

When we entered this Gaoding clothing production workshop, a set of computer automatic cutting system attracted our attention. This set of information intelligent equipment can improve the cutting efficiency by four times. It takes only 7 minutes to finish cutting the front fabric of a customized suit.

From design, plate making, cutting, sewing, hanging to ironing, you can feel the changes brought by digitalization everywhere. The person in charge of the enterprise told the reporter that through digital transformation, the original 12 day production cycle was reduced to 7 days, which also enabled the customized business of the enterprise to achieve capacity support.

Now in the clothing industry, AI is also being used more and more widely, which can not only enhance the interactive experience between brands and consumers, but also play an important role in design, marketing and other links.

　　 Xu Qing, Technical Director of Wenzhou Garment Foreign Trade Enterprise AI has also optimized the time-consuming and expensive mapping and filming links in the clothing industry chain.

In 2023, the total industrial output value of Wenzhou clothing industry above designated size will reach 31.1 billion yuan, and there will be 233 enterprises above designated size. Wenzhou clothing is going to fashion and create a new future intelligently.

Actively adjust tariff policy

Promote cross-border trade facilitation

With the continuous evolution of the global trade pattern, China is actively adjusting its tariff policy to promote the development of its foreign trade enterprises and enhance the facilitation of cross-border trade. So, what tariff policies have our foreign trade enterprises enjoyed?

The raw materials for fruit buttons produced by Chen Haihua's workshop are all plant fruits from Ecuador. The free trade agreement between China and Ecuador came into force on May 1 this year, which means that the cost of importing raw materials, parts and components or exporting finished products will be directly reduced for enterprises.

　　 Chen Haihua, Head of Wenzhou Button Foreign Trade Enterprise : Recently, at the end of this month, a container arrived in China and directly enjoyed this privilege, saving half of the tariff.

　　 Wu Jingyuan, Chief of the Second Comprehensive Business Section of Wenzhou Customs under Hangzhou Customs After the entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement, China and Eritrea will gradually eliminate tariffs on about 90% of the tax items. 60% of the tax items will be cancelled immediately on the day when the agreement comes into force.

In addition, Wenzhou Customs found in its work that some imported button raw materials, such as ox horn button discs from India, were not included in the original tariff lines, so it was necessary to increase the relevant tax lines and adjust the corresponding tax rates.

　　 Xu Shuhui, Deputy Chief of Comprehensive Business Section II of Wenzhou Customs under Hangzhou Customs : When we found the dilemma of this industry, we also invited experts from Hangzhou Customs and the General Administration of Customs. After their field research, they reported the situation to the Tariff Commission of the State Council.

After field research, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council adopted the suggestions of Hangzhou Customs on increasing the corresponding tax items and adjusting the tax rate in 2020, so that the raw materials of horn buttons and other button materials can enjoy the same tariff treatment.

　　 Chen Xianrong, Director of Customs Department of Hangzhou Customs In the past 10 years, we have basically reported 227 suggestions on tax investigation, and 58 suggestions were finally adopted by the Tariff Commission of the State Council and other relevant departments.

According to the 2024 tariff adjustment plan issued by the Tariff Commission of the State Council, since January 1 this year, China has implemented a temporary import tariff rate lower than the MFN tariff rate on 1010 commodities, further promoting trade and investment liberalization and globalization.

"Sweet potato economy" has promoted the growth of Zhejiang's trade in goods and the expansion of overseas markets. According to the statistics of Hangzhou Customs, Zhejiang has now established trade relations with more than 230 countries and regions in the world. The import and export volume has increased from 202.23 billion yuan in 2004 to 4.9 trillion yuan in 2023, realizing significant trade growth.

(Source: CCTV News)