The Chinese government has been actively promoting and supporting the development of China’s cross-border e-commerce. From 2011 to 2015, the Chinese government has issued various support policies. What made Chinese foreign trade people most excited was that in 2013, the Ministry of Commerce announced six policies to support cross-border e-commerce retail, and issued the “Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Forwarding the Opinions of the Ministry of Commerce and Other Departments on the Implementation of Policies to Support Cross-border E-commerce Retail Exports”, which proposed six specific measures to support China’s cross-border e-commerce.
1. Establish a new customs supervision model for e-commerce exports and conduct special statistics, mainly to solve the problem that retail exports cannot handle customs supervision statistics at present.
2. Establish an e-commerce export inspection and supervision model, mainly to solve the problem that e-commerce exports cannot handle inspection and quarantine.
3. Support enterprises to collect and settle foreign exchange normally, mainly to solve the problem that enterprises currently have difficulties in handling export collection and exchange.
4. Encourage banking institutions and payment institutions to provide payment services for cross-border e-commerce, mainly to solve the problem that the supporting links of payment services are relatively weak.
5. Implement tax policies that adapt to e-commerce exports, mainly to solve the problem that e-commerce export enterprises cannot handle export tax rebates.
6. Establish an e-commerce export credit system, mainly to solve the problem that the credit system and market order need to be improved.
Cross-border e-commerce has always been a key development area supported by the Chinese government. In 2015, the Chinese government issued the “Opinions on Vigorously Developing E-commerce and Accelerating the Cultivation of New Economic Driving Forces” and “Several Opinions on Accelerating the Cultivation of New Competitive Advantages in Foreign Trade”. On June 10 of the same year, the State Council held an executive meeting to deploy the development pattern of cross-border e-commerce and promote the transformation of an open economy. The meeting pointed out that the “Internet + Foreign Trade” should be used to achieve high-quality imports and exports, expand consumption, and promote the transformation of China’s foreign trade economy.
The reason why cross-border e-commerce was raised to an unprecedented height in 2015 is that China’s foreign trade encountered industrial difficulties. As a new trend of economic growth and foreign trade development, cross-border e-commerce is becoming more and more prosperous with the support and encouragement of policies. In addition to traditional cross-border export companies opening up new territory in the international market, Shenzhen Aoji has been listed on the New Third Board of China, and Cross-border E-commerce, Amazon, Alibaba, and No. 1 Store have all entered the cross-border online shopping market. According to the Ministry of Commerce’s forecast, the proportion of cross-border e-commerce in China’s import and export trade will increase to 20% in the next few years, and the annual growth rate will exceed 30%.
In 2015, China’s economy and traditional foreign trade were both troubled by internal and external troubles, and the downward pressure increased. Although cross-border e-commerce, as the foreign trade export model with the greatest growth potential, has an annual growth rate of up to 30% in recent years, as an emerging development format, there are still many pain points and limitations. This is also the core driving force for the Chinese government to vigorously support and introduce relevant policies. The “Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy and Rapid Development of Cross-border E-commerce” issued by the General Office of the State Council should be the most worthy document for our cross-border enterprises and entrepreneurs to study carefully.