On April 13, the Ministry of Commerce held the regular press conference. Spokesman Sun Jiwen answered the hot issues that concern media at home and abroad. Here is the record:

1. WTO publishes 2016 Global Trade Statistic Report

On April 12, the WTO published 2016 Global Trade Statistics Report. The Report shows that in 2016 the decreasing amplitude of the value of global trade in goods narrowed and China continued to be the largest export nation. In 2017, the volume of global trade in goods is expected to recover, but there are still many uncertainties.

China continues to maintain the largest nation of export of global trade in goods. In 2016, the export value of global trade in goods reached US$15.5 trillion, with a decrease of 3.3% and the import volume reached US$15.8 trillion, with a decrease of 3.2%. China’s export volume was US$2.1 trillion, accounting for 13.2% of the global share, and the import volume was US$1.6 trillion. China maintains the status of the largest export nation of trade in goods and the second largest import nation for eight years continuously.

It is estimated that in 2017 the global trade volume will recover and increase. But many uncertainties exist. The WTO estimates that the global trade volume will increase 2.4% in 2017. It will be1.1 percentage points higher than the actual increase of 2016, yet still lower than the annual increase growth of more than 5% before the international financial crisis two years ago.

2. Relevant Situation of Minister of Economy of the Republic of Belarus Zinovskiy Vladimir and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Belarus Nikolai Snopkov Leading Delegation to China

The Republic of Belarus is an important cooperative partner of China to promote the construction of the “Belt and Road” in Eurasia. In recent years, Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan has met with the delegation led by the Minister of Economy of the Republic of Belarus Zinovskiy Vladimir and the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Belarus Nikolai Snopkov. They jointly presided over the 3rd conference of trade and economic cooperation sub-committee of China-Belarus intergovernmental cooperation committee and the 9th conference of the working group of China-Belarus industrial park. The conference reached consensuses in fields such as China-Belarus industrial park construction, docking of strategies of economic and social development plans of the two countries, expanding bilateral trade, credit investment, economic and technical assistance and SOEs cooperation.

China-Belarus Industrial Park is an important project of cooperation between China and Belarus. The leaders of the two countries attach great importance to this and require making it a pearl of the Silk Road Economic Belt and a model of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. The two sides agreed that the industrial park has smoothly stepped from the preparatory stage to the key stage of development and operation. The two sides will take the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” as the guideline and work together to make the industrial park an international and green ecological park with complete infrastructure and basically formed industry, obviously capable of driving the economy and employment of the Belarus and increasingly improving the international influence. Both China and Belarus welcome enterprises to enter the park and forge the China-Belarus industrial park into a cooperation platform of international capacity.

3. MOU of economic and technical cooperation, revalidating the joint economic commission mechanism and free trade agreement negotiations signed by China and Norway

At the invitation of Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg paid an official visit to China on April 7-10. During the visit, President Xi Jinping met with Solberg at the Great Hall of the People. Prime Minister Li Keqiang held a talk with Prime Minister Solberg. China and Norway reached consensus on restarting relevant trade and economic arrangement. Witnessed by the government leaders of the two countries, China International Trade Representative and Vice Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying signed the MOU of Revalidating the Joint Economic and Trade Committee between the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fishery of the Kingdom of the Norway with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway Blender. According the above MOU, MOFCOM also signed the MOU of Revalidating the Free Trade Agreement Negotiation between the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fishery of the Kingdom of the Norway with the Minister of Trade and Industry of Norway Mellan and the MOU of Revalidating the Joint Economic and Trade Committee between the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fishery of the Kingdom of the Norway.

China and Norway jointly pledged to strengthen cooperation in areas such as environmental protection and implementing 2030 sustainable development agenda, and contribute to the realization of the common development of China, Norway and the globe.

China-Norway Joint Economic and Trade Commission was established in 1980 and has held 17 meetings so far. It is an important consultation mechanism for the governments of the two countries to promote the exchange of economic and trade policies and push forward pragmatic cooperation between enterprises. Both sides agreed to recover the joint committee mechanism and hold the 18th meeting of the Joint Committee as soon as possible.

China-Norway Free Trade Agreement negotiations were officially launched in September 2008. By the end of September 2010, eight rounds of negotiations had been held. The two sides agreed to hold the 9th round of negotiations of China-Norway FTA before September this year.

At present, Norway is China's fourth largest trading partner in the Nordic region, and China is Norway's largest trading partner in Asia. China and Norway have strong economic complementarities and deep cooperative basis. The resumption of relevant economic and trade arrangements will help expand mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries and continue to promote the development of Sino-Norway economic and trade relations to move forward.

IV. About the Fifth China-Kuwait Joint Committee of Economy and Trade

On April 7, Vice Minister of Commerce Qiang Keming and the Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Finance of Kuwait co-chaired the 5th China-Kuwait Joint Committee of Economy and Trade in Beijing. The two parties had in-depth discussions on energy, petrochemical industry, infrastructure and finance, and signed the minutes of the joint committee.

Kuwait is one of the Arab countries which signed cooperation documents on co-building “belt and road” with China. It is also China’s sixth largest trade partner in the Arab region, and China’s eighth importing country of crude oil in the world. The cooperation and development of contractual projects of Chinese enterprises in Kuwait enjoy a good trend. In 2016, the newly signed contract volume of contact projects of China in Kuwait reached US$ 4.08 billion, up 102.4% year on year.

In the future, China will further expand cooperation with Kuwait in energy, petrochemical industry, infrastructure, housing, industrial parks and finance. I believe the convening of this joint committee will further promote the economic and trade cooperation between China and Kuwait to expand to deeper and wider fields.

V. The opening of the 121st China Import and Export Fair

The 121st China Import and Export Fair will open on April, 15 in Guangzhou. The Canton Fair this time will be held in three phases with a total area of 1,180,000 square kilo meters, a total booth number of 60,219 and 24,700 domestic and overseas enterprises will participate in it.

At the 120th Canton Fair last year, General Secretary Xi Jinping wrote a letter to express congratulations, and Premier Li Keqiang made instructions and requirements. According to the arrangement of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the Canton Fair continuously improve its system and mechanism, promote the service level, bolster foreign trade enterprises to transform and upgrade, cultivate new competitive advantages of foreign trade, and make efforts to build “intelligent Canton Fair” and “Green Canton Fair”, so as to better play the comprehensive opening up platform role of Canton Fair.

The 121st Canton Fair will present 3 highlights:

1. Optimize services. The 121st Canton Fair will optimize the layout of the exhibition area and the structure of the participating enterprises, accelerate the brand construction of exported commodities and strengthen intellectual property protection. On the basis of continuing to exempt 23 charging on-site services, the Canton Fair this time will, waiver 240 million yuan for the participating enterprises through comprehensive governance.

2. Strengthen innovation. Canton fair this year will cooperate with WeChat business platforms for the first time and give priority to domestic purchasing agents. The newly established forum topic plates such as local industry promotion and enterprise control optimization forged and promoted platforms for various provinces and cities, providing enterprises with solutions and information to improve their inner management efficiency. Moreover, the innovation of Canton fair in product design and trade promotion center will promote transformation and upgrading of enterprises.

3. Fully promote Canton fair + internet. The omni-channel, one-stop and online and offline synchronic services with new business modes such as smart services, smart business trips, authentication of Canton fairs and company popularization will further improve the level of informatization, digitization and intelligentization and strengthen interactive experiences of exhibitors and the purchasing agents.

VI. The experimental situation of the five ministries and commissions including MOFCOM issuing the document to promote the comprehensive pilot projects of new open economy systems

Recently, the five ministries and commissions, namely, Ministry of Commerce, State Development and Reform Commission, People’s Bank of China, General Administration of Customs and General Administration of Quality Supervision, printed and distributed jointly the Several Suggestions on the further promotion of comprehensive experimental units of open economy systems (hereinafter referred to as the Suggestions) and required the relevant provincial and municipal departments further support pilot regions to construct comprehensive experimental units of new open economy systems. The Suggestions involved contents from 13 aspects in total with the purpose of strengthening the overall planning of top level design and basic level exploration and promoting greater achievements of pilot tests.

The construction of the new open economy systems is the great strategic plan of the third plenary session of the 18th central committee of the CPC. In May, 2015, the State Council of the Central Party Committee carried out the Suggestions on the construction of the new open economy systems to promote a new round of high level openness of China. In May, 2016, to deeply carry out the spirit of the document, the Commerce Department and the State Development and Reform Commission established the 12 pilot regions including Jinan, Nanchang, Tangshan, Zhangzhou, Dongguan, Fangchenggang, Pudong new area, Liangjiang new area, Xixian new area, Jinpu new area of Dalian, city circle of Wuhan and Suzhou industrial park, and started to construct comprehensive pilot projects of new open economy systems. Over the past year, various pilot regions innovated their reform measures, realized self fulfillment and achieved time-phased results in aspects like new models of economy operation management, new modes of international investment cooperation and new foreign trade promotion systems.

The Suggestions further supported pilot regions to explore and expand trade and investment facilitation, to simplify administrative procedures, to delegate powers to lower levels, to supervise fairly to promote fair competition, and to serve efficiently to create a convenient environment, providing experiences and laying a foundation for the construction of new open economy systems. And major measures include constructing to cancel after verification management modes of processing trade and rapid customs clearance modes between ports and special customs supervision areas, establishing national test sites, constructing and sharing information systems in pilot areas, completing investment filing patterns for providers of services in Hongkong and Macao, supporting foreign capital invested banks to establish branches, constructing joint Chinese-foreign banks through private capitals and foreign financial institutions, allowing qualified overseas enterprises to issue RMB bonds in China and international conglomerates to carry out two-way capital pool business of transnational RMBs, supporting constructing border tourism pilot areas and cross-border tourism cooperation zones and cultivating new border tourism spots.

Q: On April 6th, the United States questioned the WTO by claiming that the first notification made by China on subsidies of sub-national governments is not complete and there are many projects involving export subsidy that violate WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. For instance, China did not notify subsidies provided by sub-national governments for steel, aluminum and fishery industries. What’s MOFCOM’s comment?

A: The Chinese government has taken trade policy transparency very seriously since China’s accession to the WTO. In July 2016, the Chinese government notified the WTO of China’s subsidy policy at sub-national level between 2001 and 2014, including 100 sub-national subsidy policies adopted by 19 provinces and 3 municipalities with independent planning status. China has seriously fulfilled its obligation as a WTO member, which is acknowledged by other members.

The WTO allows its members to define the contents and scope of subsidy notification based on their own interpretation of relevant clauses. Given the difference in interpretation, the degree of completeness of the notification varies across members. In addition, in order to faithfully fulfill the transparency obligation, China included in the notification information related to export subsidy executed in the past. As far as we know, these export subsidy projects have all been abolished or terminated.

Q: The Ambassador of Germany to China blamed China’s high tariff, no-tariff barriers and lack of IPR protection for the imbalance in China-EU trade. What does MOFCOM think?

A: Since its accession to the WTO in 2001, China has honored its commitments and significantly enhanced the level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation. Average tariff level was brought down from 15.3% to 9.8%, meeting or even exceeding WTO’s requirements on developing members. We have constantly broadened market access to agriculture, manufacturing and services industries, abolished non-tariff measures incompliant with WTO rules such as import quota and license, completely liberalized the right to foreign trade, and lowered access threshold of foreign capital. At the same time, China has intensified its efforts to protect intellectual property by carrying out special operations to fight IPR violation and counterfeiting. In 2016 alone we investigated and processed over 200 thousand cases.

China and the EU are important trading partners and enjoy a strong synergy in two-way trade. The two sides are working together for win-win results. In general we do not see an imbalance and there is an overall balance of interests.

China has been committed to the opening-up strategy aimed at mutual benefit and win-win results and actively practicing a proactive import policy, and has not sought intentionally a trade surplus. The current situation in our two-way trade is the result of cooperation by Chinese and European businesses based on the principle of equality and mutual benefit and market rules. In addition, there is statistical discrepancy between China and the EU. Take Germany as an example. Chinese statistics show that China’s export to Germany in 2016 amounted to 65.2 billion US dollars while the import 86.1 billion US dollars, indicating a surplus on the German side worth 20.9 billion US dollars. However statistics of Germany show a deficit on its part.
　　
I want to emphasize that China values the economic and trade relations with the EU very much. President Xi Jinping recently paid a successful state visit to Finland, injecting new forces for the growth of China-EU relations. At the press conference during the Two Sessions, Premier Li Keqiang also urged the EU to respond to the Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations more actively, and stressed that China will constantly broaden the access of EU companies to China and properly address trade frictions between the two sides. We are ready to work with European countries to develop a business relationship featuring mutual benefit and win-win results, to constantly improve our trade structure, and to promote bilateral trade to grow in a sustained and healthy manner.

Q: As the international cooperation summit forum on the Belt and Road will be held next month, what plans does the Ministry of Commerce have in terms of building overseas trade and economic cooperation zones?

A: The international cooperation summit forum on the Belt and Road to be held in Beijing in May is China’s first high-level international forum featuring the Belt and Road initiative. It is of great practical meaning and far-reaching historical significance for tackling the problems facing the world and regional economy today, promoting a more dynamic, inclusive and sustainable economic globalization process and fostering an open, interconnected world economy.

Trade connectivity is an important topic of this forum. During the forum, the Ministry of Commerce will host a parallel session on "Promoting Unimpeded Trade". The theme is "Deepening Economic Cooperation along the Belt and Road for Unimpeded and Efficient Trade and Win-Win Development." So far, officials and industry participants from many countries have signed on to attend this session.

China has made smooth progress and achieved early harvests when it comes to building overseas trade and economic cooperation zones, which is an important carrier of the trade and economic cooperation under the Belt and Road initiative. These zones are regarded as the "shining pearls" along the Belt and Road. Among the total of 77 cooperation zones Chinese enterprises have built in 36 countries, 56 are located in the 20 countries along the Belt and Road. These 56 zones have attracted a total investment of 18.55 billion US dollars and 1,082 tenant enterprises, generated 50.69 billion US dollars of industrial output and1.07 billion US dollars of tax revenue to the host countries, and created 177,000 jobs for the local communities. They have played a positive role in promoting the industrialization process and industrial upgrading of the countries along the routes, and in developing the bilateral commercial ties between them and China.

Going forward, we will continue to uphold the principle of making joint efforts in negotiations, implementation and sharing, promote the Silk Road spirit, leverage the respective advantages of Chinese enterprises, host country enterprises and third-party enterprises by strengthening planning and guidance, promoting strategy alignment and improving cooperation mechanism, and work together with the host countries to promote the construction of cooperation zones and to contribute to the economic and social development of the host countries. At the same time, we hope that the relevant countries could work together with the Chinese government to create a legal, policy and business environment favorable for the relevant cooperation zones.

Q: US Department of Commerce said on April 4th that the US imports from China fell to 32.8 billion dollars in February, down 20.8% from a year ago, a record low, while the February Sino-US trade deficit fell 26.6% to 23 billion dollars. What is the Ministry’s comment on this?

A: According to Chinese statistics, in February 2017, Sino-US trade reached 33.01 billion US dollars, up 7.0%. Among them, Chinese imports from the United States reached 11.29 billion US dollars, up 37.9%; exports to the United States totaled at 21.71 billion US dollars, down 4.2%. China gained a surplus of 10.42 billion US dollars, down 28%. The US statistics you quoted also show that US trade deficit with China fell by 26% in February, while exports to China increased by 22%.
　
China never pursues a trade surplus. Fundamentally, trade imbalance between China and the US is determined by the economic structure of the two countries, their respective industrial competitiveness, and the international division of labor. Although the trade surplus is counted in China's favor, the benefit of it is actually shared by both sides. China is willing to expand imports from the United States based on actual demand in the domestic market. We hope that the United States can also adjust its export control policy and other policies that impede exports to China so as to create the conditions for narrowing the trade deficit.

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