Beijing strives to reduce COVID-19's impact on trade

VCG

China's Commerce Ministry says the Chinese government has been working to stabilize China's trade and commerce and help trade-related companies resume operation as soon as possible.

To help trade-related companies to resume operation, the ministry has been particularly watching thekeyones in the industrial chain. The government has also been making great efforts to implement export tax return and export insurance to lower the cost of exporting. It has also been supporting company innovation and new businesses to expand their exports, such as cross-border e-commerce.

The ministry's measures have produced positive results.

"The operation resumption rate of trade-related companies in eight major trade provinces and cities has exceeded 80 percent, including Shandong, Anhui and Liaoning. In terms of the operation resumption of key trade companies, the resumption rates of 19 provinces and cities, including Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai, have reached or been close to 100 percent," said Li Xingqian, head of the foreign trade department at the Commerce Ministry.

Despite the effort, the coronavirus outbreak has affected China's trade. According to figures from China's Commerce Ministry, China's total trade volume in the first two months of this year has fallen.

The total trade volume was 4.12 trillion yuan, or nearly 588.57 billion US dollars, down 9.6 percent year-on-year. The exports were about 2.04 trillion yuan, or about 291.43 billion dollars, down nearly 16 percent. Imports, on the other hand, reached 2.08 trillion yuan, or 297.14 billion dollars, down 2.4 percent.

The ministry said China's imports and exports with traditional markets, including America, the European Union and Japan, saw substantial declines, down 19.6 percent, 14.2 percent and 15.3 percent, respectively. Also facing challenges are private companies, as well as state-owned and foreign enterprises in China. The foreign companies' exports, in particular, were down by 20 percent.

"Because of the coronavirus outbreak and the Spring Festival holiday, the time when the trade-related companies resume their operations is later than in past years. So, we have seen the decrease of the trade volume, particularly exports, in the first two months," says Li.

"As we are aware, more than 110 countries and regions have seen the case of the coronavirus, the downward pressure of global trade and economy is mounting, so is the uncertainty of China's external development environment."

But Li stresses that Beijing will continue to closely watch the development of the outbreak and the resumption of operations at Chinese companies and implement policies to support those companies. Beijing will also strengthen cooperation with other countries to fight against COVID-19 and try to minimize the negative impact of the outbreak on Chinese and global trade.