This aerial photo taken on Dec. 13, 2022 shows gantry crane loading and uploading containers of sea-rail intermodal trains at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in east China's Zhejiang Province. The cargo and container throughput of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port registered year-on-year growth of 3.41 percent and 7.84 percent respectively in the first 11 months in 2022. The port saw its cargo throughput reach 1.16 billion tons while the container throughput achieved 31.26 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).(Photo: Xinhua)

The General Administration of Customs (GAC) of China said it will optimize anti-COVID responses at ports and promote land border reopening amid government efforts to boost foreign trade.

Efforts will be made to ensure smooth customs clearance at ports and promote international trade while guarding against imported COVID cases from overseas, the GAC said on Monday.

“We will boost exports of competitive products, support companies to secure orders and expand markets, and give full play to the role of export in supporting the economy” the GAC said.

The optimized measures come as China steps up a push for foreign markets and encourages exporters to make overseas trips to grabmoreorders. 

Many local governments, particularly those in the country's booming coastal regions, such as East China’s Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces and South China’s Guangdong Province are moving fast to arrange charter planes to send business delegations to meet with overseas customers.

The reopening of borders and enterprises’ aspiration to grab foreign orders is expected to boost China’s foreign trade growth, which slowed down in November, due to weak overseas demand, growing geopolitical tensions and COVID-19 resurgences.

The optimized epidemic prevention measures at ports will improve trade efficiency and help the revitalization of trade, Zhou Maohua, an economist at Everbright Bank, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

“The accelerated recovery of domestic demand and the gradual recovery of foreign trade orders, coupled with the low base effect, mean imports will pick up significantly next year,” Zhou said.

Active moves by foreign trade companies to expand overseas markets and their vigorous development of new forms of foreign trade will help China’s export sector to keep an appropriate growth rate despite shrinking external demand, Zhou said.

The GAC said that it will support the development of new business forms such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses to foster new growth drivers for foreign trade.

Efforts will also be made to improve the business environment at ports, step up efforts to assist troubled enterprises, and provide targeted services to foreign and private enterprises, according to the GAC.

As an important takeaway from the Central Economic Work Conference, Chinese top policymakers stressed that the country will make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital, widen market access, promote the opening-up of modern services industries, and grant foreign-funded enterprises equal national treatment, the meeting said.

China will actively seek to join high-standard economic and trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, according to the meeting.

Global Times