Accelerate the integration of domestic and foreign trade and open up both domestic and international markets

Zhu Changjun

Zhang Chao

Accelerating the integration of domestic and foreign trade is an intrinsic requirement for building a new development pattern and promoting high-quality development. Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued a notice on "Several Measures to Accelerate the Integrated Development of Domestic and Foreign Trade" (hereinafter referred to as "Several Measures"), proposing 18 measures in 5 aspects to better play the important role of domestic and foreign trade integration in promoting economic development, expanding domestic demand, and stabilizing enterprises.

"Integration of domestic and foreign trade" is not a new term. As early as October 2003, the "Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Issues Concerning the Improvement of the Socialist Market Economic System" adopted by the Third Plenary Session of the 16 th CPC Central Committee proposed to speed up the process of domestic and foreign trade integration in accordance with the requirements of the market economy and WTO rules. At that time, a realistic background was that under the condition that the opening up to the outside world was accelerating, and all kinds of social resources, capital allocation, and preferential policies were tilted to the outside, the unified and organic management of domestic and foreign trade or the entire market circulation was realized, and the problem of "two skins" in the development of domestic and foreign trade was solved.

Today, 20 years later, China has made positive progress in promoting the integration of domestic and foreign trade, and the phenomenon of "super-national treatment" of foreign investment, which has attracted much attention before, has basically ended. However, as pointed out at the recent regular briefing on the policy of the State Council held by the State Council Information Office, enterprises still face some obstacles when switching between domestic and foreign markets, and there is a problem of "emphasizing foreign and ignoring domestic", and the integration of domestic and foreign trade of enterprises still needs to pass the "four passes": capital pass, standard pass, channel pass, and supervision pass. This is exactly what needs to be addressed in policy.

It can be clearly seen that in recent years, the policy deployment of "domestic and foreign trade integration" at the national level has shown an accelerating trend. For example, in June 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Implementation Opinions on Supporting the Domestic Sales of Export Products", proposing to encourage enterprises to expand the international market, support marketable export products to open up the domestic market, and strive to help foreign trade enterprises tide over difficulties and promote the basic stability of foreign trade, and in December 2021, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Integrated Development of Domestic and Foreign Trade" It is pointed out that promoting the integration of domestic and foreign trade is conducive to the formation of a strong domestic market, is conducive to the smooth domestic and international dual circulation, and clarifies that by 2025, the convergence of domestic and foreign trade laws and regulations, regulatory system, business qualifications, quality standards and other aspects will be more effective, so as to realize the efficient operation and integrated development of domestic and foreign trade It is also proposed to promote the quality standards of major consumer goods in key areas to be in line with international standards, deepen international cooperation and mutual recognition of quality certification, and promote the same line, same standard and same quality of domestic and foreign trade products.

These intensive policy deployments are directly related to the adverse impact of the epidemic on the development of global foreign trade. At the same time, as the uncertainty of the internal and external development environment continues to rise, foreign trade is facing greater challenges, and the importance of domestic demand has increased accordingly, and it is also urgent to accelerate the establishment of a new domestic and foreign trade development pattern. For example, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's exports have been declining for six consecutive months since May, and did not turn positive for the first time until November. If a series of policies in the early stage are mainly focused on promoting the integration of domestic and foreign trade from the macro point of view, then the introduction of the "Several Measures" is aimed at better solving specific problems, but also shows the urgency of accelerating the integration of domestic and foreign trade.

Specifically, such as promoting the convergence of domestic and foreign trade standards, promoting the convergence of domestic and foreign trade inspection and certification, promoting the convergence of domestic and foreign trade supervision, and promoting the same line, same standard and same quality of domestic and foreign trade products, the main thing is to solve the problem of convergence and integration of domestic and foreign trade rules and systems. At present, some foreign trade enterprises have more and more demand for "export to domestic sales", and some domestic trade enterprises also have a stronger willingness to "go out", and the first pass they have to cross is the rules and standards of domestic and foreign trade. Only by focusing on promoting the convergence and integration of rules and standards can we eliminate the obstacles to the conversion of these enterprises in the domestic and foreign trade markets. Taking the export of new energy vehicles, which is known as one of the "new three" of foreign trade, as an example, promoting the full integration of the new energy vehicle export certification system with international rules will help enhance the initiative of China's new energy vehicles in the global market. The "Several Measures" also include deepening international cooperation in inspection, quarantine, certification and accreditation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

From the perspective of consumption, promoting the integration of domestic and foreign trade is also an important part of efforts to expand domestic demand. For a long time, many domestic consumers have such a question -- why is the quality and standard of export products produced by the same enterprise or even the same production line often higher than those sold in China? The most fundamental reason behind this is that the quality standard system of domestic and foreign trade is not uniform. Promoting the integration of domestic and foreign trade and realizing the same line, same standard and same quality of domestic and foreign trade products will help solve this problem, which will not only reduce the cost of enterprises to open up the domestic and international markets, but also better meet the needs of consumers and help boost consumption. At the same time, the "Several Measures" proposes to support foreign trade enterprises to expand the domestic market, simplify the import procedures of edible and medicinal substances used in food processing, and support the domestic sales of imported exhibits with mature supervision methods and strong domestic demand, which can also bring about the "catfish effect", force the overall improvement of domestic product quality, and help the supply-side structural reform.

However, a cognitive misunderstanding to be avoided is that promoting the integration of domestic and foreign trade cannot be simply understood as the status of domestic trade is upgraded, and the status of foreign trade is downgraded. It should be noted that the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade is mainly to break through the blocking points of domestic and foreign trade connection, help enterprises switch more smoothly between domestic and international markets, and the ultimate goal is to achieve better development of domestic trade and foreign trade. For example, the "Several Measures" proposes to cultivate a number of leading enterprises with international competitiveness and equal emphasis on domestic and foreign trade, enhance the ability of global resource integration and allocation, support the core enterprises of the supply chain to drive upstream and downstream enterprises to jointly develop domestic and international markets, increase the overseas publicity of Chinese brands, and encourage time-honored brands to enter the international market. In other words, one of the purposes of accelerating the integration of domestic and foreign trade is to enable more competitive Chinese enterprises to enter the international market. Therefore, in the process of promoting the integration of domestic and foreign trade, we must avoid the tendency to set domestic trade and foreign trade against each other, otherwise we may go to the other extreme.

From a larger perspective, promoting the integration of domestic and foreign trade is not only a timely move in a phased manner, but an inevitable choice for China's economic development to a certain stage and build a new development pattern. Recently, China has just ushered in the 45th anniversary of reform and opening up, and it is not a new connotation of reform and opening up to promote the integrated and coordinated development of domestic trade and foreign trade, and achieve a higher level of "bringing in" and "going out" of higher quality.