Reloading: Processing Trade Crosses The "Crossroads"

The figures can best illustrate the problem: in the 1~7 months of this year, the proportion of China's processing trade exports accounted for 49.9% of the total exports of the country, and for the first time in ten years, it was less than 50%, compared with 52.7% in 2006.

The latest statistics of Customs show the initial results of the macro-control policies of the state.

Since 1996, the proportion of processing trade in China has been maintained at around 55%, especially in 1998 and 1999, which has reached 56.9%.

In the past two years, in accordance with the requirements of macro regulation and industrial development, the state has made major adjustments to the prohibited categories and restricted categories of processing trade, and established a dynamic adjustment mechanism for commodity catalogues.

"Restriction" is for better development.

In the interview with our reporter, the responsible person of the Ministry of Commerce's industry division stressed that for processing trade, we should "promote development, upgrade and upgrade, and pfer gradients".

However, in this process, there are bound to be some "limiting" factors.

The so-called "restriction" refers to the improvement of the entry threshold for processing trade through regulation and control, restricting or prohibiting the export of "two high and one capital" and low value-added products.

"But we should not neglect the more important" development "factors, namely, by adjusting the product structure of processing trade and certain policy incentives to promote the pformation and upgrading of processing trade and the gradient pfer, and promote the healthy development of processing trade.

In addition to the ten year pattern of the export of processing trade, the figures for the previous July show the following characteristics:

The export of mechanical and electrical and hi-tech products continued to grow, and exports of "two high and one capital" products dropped sharply.

In 1~7 months, the exports of billets and crude forgings, wrought aluminum, forged copper, forged tin and tin alloys, granite stones and products decreased by 84%, 73.4%, 71.7%, 62.3% and 79.8% respectively over the same period last year.

At the same time, the processing trade of high-tech products exports 147 billion 600 million US dollars, accounting for 45.2% of the processing trade exports; the processing trade of mechanical and electrical products is exported to US $251 billion 130 million, which accounts for 77% of the processing trade exports, an increase of 0.9 percentage points over the same period last year.

The proportion of surplus is decreasing, and the growth rate is lower than general trade.

In 1~7 months, the surplus of processing trade was 129 billion 630 million US dollars, up 37.8% from the same period last year, and the growth rate was 49.3 percentage points lower than the general trade surplus in the same period.

The proportion of surplus in processing trade to foreign trade surplus decreased from 1.2 times in the same period last year to 94.7% at present.

The growth rate of imports of domestic products declined.

In the first 7 months, the import volume of processed goods returned to US $30 billion 670 million, an increase of 13.3%, down 14.1 percentage points from the same period last year.

Another encouraging sign is that the proportion of processing trade in the central and western parts of the country has increased, and the trend of gradient pfer has gradually emerged.

1~7 months, the processing trade in the central and western regions accounted for 2.8%, an increase of 0.6 percentage points over the same period last year, with the growth rate of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jiangxi and other provinces increased by 76%~220%.

Historical achievements are unmatched.

Since the signing of the first processing agreement for woolen textiles in August 1978 in Xiangzhou wool mill in Zhuhai, China's processing trade has made remarkable achievements: the total import and export volume of processing trade has increased from 333 US dollars in 1981 to US $831 billion 900 million in 2006, an increase of 333 times.

Over the same period, the proportion of processing trade in foreign trade increased from 5.7% to 52.7%.

Processing trade has become the main way of China's foreign trade, and its contribution to China's exports has reached over 60%. Over the years, 3000 jobs have been created, accounting for 20% of the second industries in China, while the number of relevant supporting industries is about 50 million to 60 million.

Through the development of processing trade, China has also realized the readjustment and upgrading of its industrial structure.

According to the statistics of Ministry of Commerce, in 2006, the number of mechanical and electrical products accounted for 76.7%, up 1.5% from the same period last year (40% higher than in 1993), 48.2% of new and high technology products, 1.4% higher than 1997 (34.2%), while the traditional labor intensive clothing and accessories, textiles, footwear, toys, plastics, furniture and travel bags accounted for 13.7%, down 1.2% from the same period last year (a 15.2% decrease over 2001).

According to Long Guoqiang, Vice Minister of the Ministry of foreign affairs of the State Council Development Research Center, the rapid development of processing trade not only made China become the "world manufacturing center" in the new century, but also brought a lot of new products and technologies, and directly led to the development of new manufacturing industries such as IT in China.

According to statistics, in 2005, 96.7% of China's export computer products, 99.9% of notebook computers, 94.6% of mobile phones, 95.3% of digital cameras and 94.3% of color TV sets were realized through processing trade.

In particular, the "spillover effect" of processing trade technology and management has greatly promoted the technological progress and industrial upgrading of the relevant domestic enterprises.

This "spillover" is mainly achieved through the demonstration and competition of products, the order requirements and technical support of processing enterprises to supporting enterprises, and the flow of technology and management personnel.

The Byd Company Limited, the world's second largest rechargeable battery manufacturer, carrying the "battery myth", is a model of pformation through processing trade. Shenzhen Byd Company Limited.

Through the development of processing trade, they quickly completed the accumulation of capital, technology and talent, and then took two years to mobilize more than 3000 technical researchers to jointly develop and create another main industry -- automobile manufacturing.

At present, the company's automotive products have applied for a number of domestic and foreign patents, and are fully engaged in general trade production.

The "BYD" automobile with its own brand has entered many countries and regions such as the Middle East, Africa and South America.

"Restriction" for better "development"

But we can not deny that, "for a long time, China's processing trade is basically OEM production, and its technology content and added value are relatively low. Foreign-funded enterprises account for a high proportion, and domestic enterprises take part in less opportunities; land, energy and resources occupy and consume a lot; and environmental pollution is heavier. The most important thing is that some development trends of processing trade seem to fix China in the low end of international labor division and unable to extricate itself."

Wei Jianguo, Vice Minister of Commerce, frankly stated the existing problems in processing trade.

In particular, the increasing share and surplus of trade exports through processing trade has made Chinese products more exposed to international trade frictions.

Wang Qinhua, director of the industry department of the Ministry of Commerce, held shortly before the "processing trade to the Midwest? Script src=>"