On August 2, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) held a regular press conference. Shen Danyang, the spokesman, responded to the hot sensitive issues highly concerned by domestic and overseas media. Details are as follows.

1. How about the operation situation of the four Free Trade Pilot Zones in the first half year, especially the situation of the experiment measures of the major pilots? What are the new achievements?

A: In the first half year, the four Free Trade Pilot Zones including Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian, freed the mind and took the initiative to promote the construction of Free Trade Pilot Zone. They took system innovation as the core, simplified administrative procedures and delegated powers to lower levels, combined delegating power, strengthened regulation and optimized service. In the first 5 months, 691,777 enterprises were set in Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian Free Trade Pilot Zone. Among these, there are 65,117 domestic enterprises with the registered capital of RMB 1.9520 trillion ; 4,060 enterprises were foreign invested and their contractual foreign capital reached RMB 308.6 billion, among which there were 4,030 newly set foreign invested enterprises with the contractual foreign capital of RMB 308.4 billion, accounting for 99.3% and 99.9% respectively.

At the same time, supported by the Ministry of Commerce and the related departments, the pilot tasks of the 4 FTZs were comprehensively carried out and the implementation rate of the general plan over was 90%. While accelerating the construction of new system of the open economy, the FTZs conducted bold exploration in investment, trade, finance, entrepreneurship and innovation both during and after supervision. The vitality of the market entities was stimulated effectively, mass entrepreneurship and public innovation were promoted, and a batch of duplicable and promotable pilot reform experience came into being.

1. Continue to deepen the reform of investment management system while taking the negative list management as the core. The National Treatment plus Negative List Management mode before foreign investment entry qualifications was on enhanced trial in 4 Free Trade Pilot Zones. The reform of business registration system was constantly broadened. “One window” service for enterprises and “one-stop” service for investment and cooperation overseas were carried out.

2. Take trade facilitation as the priority, the innovation of trade monitoring system gained obvious achievements. The port administrative departments accelerated information exchange, mutual recognition of monitoring, mutual assistance of law enforcement, and constantly optimized the monitoring mode of “liberalizing the front line and controlling the second line securely and efficiently. The “Single Window” of the international trade was optimized constantly, and the efficiency of custom clearance of the Free Trade Zones was promoted by about 40%.

3. Steadily introduce innovative measures of financial liberalization aiming at promoting the quality and level of service and entity economy. The free trading accounts of Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone were broadened from RMB to foreign currency business on a trial basis. The Free Trade Zones of Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian tried to introduce credit risk compensation for small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and “interaction between banks and taxes” to exempt guarantee for honest small and micro-sized enterprises, so as to help mass entrepreneurship and public innovation.

4. The whole chain system of credit monitoring was basically formed. Its guiding concept is “making integrity commitments in advance, making evaluation and classification when it happens, and making rewards and punishment afterwards”.
5. Public service support system aiming at encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation was formed initially.


6. Differential functional measures mainly serving national strategies like “Belt and Road” were introduced constantly.

At present, the State Council Ministerial Joint Meeting Office for the work of Free Trade Pilot Zones, together with the related departments and the four provinces and municipalities, summarized and formed a new batch of experience and suggestions of reform and pilot, which will be implemented and promoted after the evaluation from the third-party and the completion of necessary procedures.

2. According to the foreign media, UK is discussing about carrying out the FTA negotiation with China. Is that true? What are the opinions of Ministry of Commerce?

A: China is willing to carry out economic and trade cooperation with UK. China is open to the negotiation and signing of FTA with UK and is willing to do the research together with UK.

3. The 31st summer Olympics will open on August 5 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Please introduce us the related situations about China-Brazil economic and trade cooperation at present.

A: At present, China-Brazil economic and trade cooperation enjoyed a sustainable development and a good momentum. It mainly shows in the following four aspects.

Firstly, the bilateral high-level communication is frequent and economic and trade cooperation has stronger motivation. In 2014, President Xi Jinping visited Brazil successfully. In May and June last year, Premier Li Keqiang and Vice Premier Wang Yang visited Brazil consecutively, and the fourth meeting of China-Brazil high-level coordination and cooperation committee was held. All of these have injected strong power to China-Brazil practical cooperation.

Secondly, bilateral economic and trade relation enjoys a solid foundation and steady development. At present, Brazil is China’s 10th largest trade partner, and also China’s largest trade partner, the largest investment destination and the second largest contract market in Latin America. China has been Brazil’s largest trade partner for 7 consecutive years. Brazil is the only American country who is the founder of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Thirdly, China’s export to Brazil witnessed slight decrease this year, but the import grew rapidly. Affected by the slow recovery of the world economy and the price decease of the international staple commodity, China-Brazil trade volume totaled US$ 24.1 billion in the first 5 months this year, down 9.5%. China’s import from Brazil saw an increase of 17.3%, and the share of the staple commodities imported from Brazil increased constantly. In the recent two years, Brazil has become China’s largest source of poultry and beef consecutively.

Fourthly, bilateral cooperation in investment and other fields also gained positive progress. By the end of 2015, the direct investment of Chinese enterprises in Brazil reached US$ 3.877 billion, mainly covering the fields of energy and mining, electric power transmission, manufacturing, finance, agriculture, service industry and wholesale and retail industry. There were over 200 Chinese enterprises in Brazil. The contractual volume of contracted projects signed by the Chinese enterprises in Brazil reached US$ 18.77 billion, with a completed turnover of US$ 12.97 billion. Besides, to support Brazil Olympics, China invited 20 professional Brazilian athletes of Pingpang and Badminton to China for training respectively.

The nature of China-Brazil economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial and it brings genuine benefits to the people of the two countries. In the future, the two parties would promote practical cooperation jointly in trade, investment and infrastructure, give full play to the complementary advantages to improve China-Brazil economic and trade cooperation, and actively promote the constant development of China-Brazil comprehensive strategic partnership.

4. Recently, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced that it will not object the deal that the joint financial group with international capital from China, Canada and UK would purchase Australian Railway and Port Service Group. Does this mean that the M & A of the 4 Australian major ports logistics chains, in which the Chinese capital also took part, has gained major progress?

A: we have noticed that, ACCC announced that it will not object the deal that the joint financial group with international capital from China, Canada and UK would purchase Australian Railway and Port Service Group. In our opinion, the Australian departments turning on the green light to the case is helpful to the final completion of the deal.

In recent years, Australia has always been China’s major destination of investment overseas. In the first half of 2016, China’s non-financial direct investment in Australia reached US$ 1.87 billion, up 81.6% year on year. The Chinese enterprises, together with the international capital from Canada and UK, jointly purchased the Australian Railway and Port Service Group, which means that the patterns of the Chinese enterprises to conduct the investment and cooperation overseas are more diversified, and the level of internationalized operation is being optimized. China hopes that China and Australia will maintain the active cooperation and bolster the development of bilateral economic and trade relation.

5. In recent two month, the US Department of Commerce published the final decision of the dumping and subsidy of the second administrative review against the Chinese photovoltaic products respectively. Many Chinese mandatory respondents were ruled to be levied high tax rate. How does the Ministry of Commerce respond with this?

A: On June 14 and July 13, 2016, the US Department of Commerce published the financial decision of the dumping and subsidy of the second administrative review against the Chinese photovoltaic products respectively. In terms of dumping part, two Chinese mandatory respondents were ruled to pay 6.12% and 12.19% of tax rate. With regard to the subsidy part, a mandatory respondent and another two enterprises requesting reexamination were ruled to pay 19.25% of tax rate. We believe that the practice of the United States continuing to adopt the anti-dumping and countervailing measures seriously disturbs the development of the industrial chain of global photovoltaic products. We feel sorry for it.

Photovoltaic is the emerging industry of the sustainable development strategy, beneficial to protecting environment and reducing pollution. The Chinese photovoltaic industry possesses mature and advanced technology and equipment, provides a large amount of good-quality and good-service products for the international market and imports a great deal of photovoltaic cell raw materials and production equipment at the same time. Both China and the United States are the major markets of relevant photovoltaic products with broad prospects for cooperation in this field. We still hope to strengthen the dialogue and negotiation with the relevant countries including the United States, to properly deal with the trade frictions of photovoltaic products by industrial cooperation and to make practical contribution to responding to the global 
6. It is reported that the Ministry of Commerce is adopting measures to guide the processing trade industries along the coast to transfer to the central and western areas. Is it true?

A: Processing trade is an important component of the Chinese foreign trade and open economy, playing a significant role in confirming the great trading country status, increasing job opportunities and participating in the division of the international industry chain, etc. In January, the State Council issued the Opinions on Promoting the Innovative Development of Processing Trade, proposing working requirements such as supporting mainland border areas in undertaking the transference of industrial gradient and researching formulating different supportive policies. On May 5, the State Council introduced the Opinions on Promoting the Recovery of Foreign Trade, highlighting the processing trade again. Besides, the Opinions emphasized to use finance and land policies comprehensively to support processing trade transferring to the central and western areas. To this end, the MOFCOM is positively implementing the relevant policies with the relevant departments and the central and western areas, promoting the gradient transference of processing trade to the central and western areas and pushing forward the recovery of foreign trade. We believe that these measures will play a positive role in optimizing the development environment of processing trade and encouraging the gradient transfer.

It is important to note that encouraging the gradient transference of processing trade doesn’t mean that we force those enterprises which have good performance in East China to move to the central and western areas; instead, we give priority to transfer those industries which originally planned to transfer outside to transfer to the central and western areas, based on respecting the market disciplines. For example, East China also has less developed areas. If the processing trade enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta transfer from one city to another less developed city in the East China. We will support that too.

7. In the past two year, the Ministry of Commerce has introduced a series of measures in promoting the adjustment and transformation and upgrading of the structure of foreign trade. What new progress has been made this year?

A: In the past two years, the Ministry of Commerce has positively studied, promoted and introduced a series of policies supporting the foreign trade which stabilize growth and adjust structure with relevant departments according to the decision and deployment of the Central Party Committee and the State Council. Among these, the adopted measures for “adjusting structure” such as positively supporting the development of new foreign trade business mode, positively promoting the action plan of the export growth of brand and promoting the innovation and development of processing trade have been pushed forward smoothly. The obvious new progress has been made in the first half of this year and they mainly embody in the following five aspects:

Firstly, the international market layout has been further optimized. The proportion of the export to the emerging markets has reached 46.4%, 1.1 percentage point higher than that in 2014.

Secondly, the commodity structure has been further optimized. The export proportion of mechanical and electrical products and high-tech products has reached 57.6% and 27.6%. The export of the large-sized complete sets of equipment has realized 3% of positive growth.

Thirdly, the business entities have been further optimized. Private enterprises have been the operation body with the most vitality and export potential. The foreign trade export of private enterprises accounts for 46.7% of the whole country, 3.5 percentage points higher than that in 2014. This proportion has exceeded the foreign-invested enterprises.

Fourthly, the trade mode has been further optimized. The proportion of trade export has been 55.6%, 4.3 percentage points higher than that in 2014. The fair among the inhabitants of the border areas has increased 25%, making positive contribution to stabilizing and flourishing the border areas.

Fifthly, the new business of foreign trade has enjoyed a rapid development. In 2015, the growth of the cross-border e-commerce has exceeded 30%, the market procurement trade growth has exceeded 60% and the growth of the foreign trade comprehensive service enterprises has exceeded 20%. Since this year, these three kinds of new business of foreign trade have continued to maintain a momentum of rapid development, becoming a new growth point of foreign trade.

8. According to the report of the media, Didi and Uber China will merge, which belongs to the concentration of undertakings. Does it need to submit the relevant declaration? How does the Ministry of Commerce view this?

A: The Ministry of Commerce hasn’t received any declaration of the concentration of undertakings of the relevant transaction related to Didi and Uber China at present. According to the regulation, operators should declare to the Ministry of Commerce in advance if their behavior conforms to the declaration conditions of the Antimonopoly Law and the declaration standards of the Stipulation on the Declaration Standards of the Concentration of Undertakings by the State Council. For those who don’t declare first cannot implement the concentration.

9. How is the progress of the construction of the tracing system of important products mainly promoted by the Ministry of Commerce in recent years? We hear that the new demonstration work will be carried out in four provinces and cities. What are the contents of the demonstration? What kind of effects do you hope to achieve?

A: Since 2010, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance have supported 58 pilot cities in carrying out the construction of the tracing system of meat and vegetables in five batches. At present, there are more than 15,000 enterprises setting up the tracing system of meat and vegetables, covering more than 320,000 dealers. This preliminary nationwide tracing network which connects the urban and rural areas has played a positive role not only in promoting the innovation of the food safety governance model and security model, but also in creating an assured consumption environment.

According to the deployment of the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce, together with the Ministry of Finance, has decided to support Shanghai, Shandong province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Regions and Xiamen city in carrying out the demonstration work of the tracing system construction of important products. This demonstration work mainly includes four items: firstly, to promote the upgrading of the circulation tracing system of meat and traditional Chinese medicines. Efforts should be made to carry out electronic clearing transformation in the key aspects, promote to use the more advanced and applicable tracing technology, optimize the tracing procedure and set up a long-term mechanism of sustainable operation of tracing system. Secondly, carry out the construction of tracing system of featured products. Every pilot province or city should choose one or two featured products which have complete industrial chains but are seriously affected by the forged and fake commodities to carry out the construction of tracing system and create a green supply chain of feature products. Efforts should be made to encourage and support the third-party certification organization in building the specialized certification system of tracing system and exploring and building the market-oriented certification service system. Thirdly, carry out the construction of tracing system of dairy products. Efforts should be made to create a tracing system covering the whole process, from dairy animal raising, raw and fresh milk purchasing to dairy products production and sales. According to the general pattern of the local consumption, efforts should also be made to explore and carry out the construction of the tracing system of imported milk powder. Fourthly, build a tracing management platform of important products. Efforts should be made to build an authorized and uniformed big data base of tracing, improve the data sharing and exchange mechanism between governments, forge the platform into a unified channel of interconnectivity of tracing information crossing links and departments, orderly open data resource to the society and explore the value-added usage of the tracing data.

We hope to create an informationized tracing chain covering production, circulation and consumption by the new demonstration of the four provinces and cities. The chain will promote the quality and risk management and the control of the full process of production and operation. It will realize the goal of checking the source of products, tracing the direction of products, and investigating the responsibilities. It will also forge an assured consumption channel and assist the transformation and upgrading of consumption.