In doing business, it is important to take advantage of the situation and follow the trend. Businessmen who are more sensitive to policies are more likely to succeed. This is even more prominent in our country. Government advocacy often becomes the “window” for new industries, and the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce has Chinese characteristics. The vigorous development of domestic e-commerce is inseparable from a period of loose supervision, while cross-border e-commerce relies more on policies, especially imports, which can be said to be boosted by the government’s initiative to “set the stage”.
In response to the issues that restrict the development of cross-border e-commerce, since 2013, relevant documents issued by governments at all levels to promote the development of foreign trade have involved cross-border e-commerce facilitation measures, and as a norm matters, included in the State Council’s routine guidance documents on international trade. The successive release of major policy documents has also stimulated the rapid implementation of supporting measures.
Under market liberalization, policy arrangements based on “carrot + stick” can become a trade-off solution for government regulatory system innovation, achieving a dynamic balance between limited monopoly and competition, incentives and taxes, authority and market Orderly. Governments at all levels quickly introduced relevant industry support policies, including establishing new customs supervision and inspection supervision models adapted to e-commerce import and export, and implementing appropriate tax policies. Since 2015, policy orientations have begun to focus, such as making the B2B model mainstream, reducing export inspection rates, and promoting and supporting companies to go global and build “overseas warehouses.”
Premier Li Keqiang called for “deployment to promote the healthy and rapid development of cross-border e-commerce and promote the development and upgrading of the open economy”: First, optimize the customs clearance process, simplify the classification of cross-border e-commerce export commodities, implement business entities and Commodity filing management, adopting convenient measures such as centralized declaration, inspection, release and 24-hour bill collection for imported and exported commodities; second, implementing the tax refund and tax exemption policy for cross-border e-commerce retail export goods, encouraging cross-border electronic payments, and promoting cross-border foreign exchange payments Pilot program to support domestic bank card clearing institutions to expand overseas business; third, encourage comprehensive foreign trade service enterprises to provide customs clearance, warehousing, financing and other services for cross-border e-commerce, and guide enterprises to standardize their operations; fourth, encourage cross-border e-commerce retail export enterprises to use overseas Expand marketing channels such as warehouses and experience stores, cultivate own brands and self-built platforms, and promote foreign trade to speed up volume and increase efficiency.
Since the beginning of reform and opening up, pilot projects have become an important practical method for pragmatic policies in our country. Since 2009, the State Council and multiple ministries and commissions have jointly identified 53 cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou as “National E-commerce Demonstration Cities” in batches. At the end of 2012, 5 cities including Shanghai, Chongqing, Ningbo, Zhengzhou and Hangzhou were identified. Cross-border e-commerce pilots were launched in several cities, and were later gradually extended to more than ten cities including Shenzhen.
In March 2015, the Hangzhou Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone was approved, marking the release of cross-border e-commerce policy dividends and the maturity of the operation model. Then in 2016, the State Council approved the comprehensive pilot zone in 12 cities including Tianjin. test area. During the “window period” of policy dividends from 2013 to 2016, the government has been releasing benefits for cross-border trade. In view of the problems existing in cross-border trade e-commerce that are cleared through express mail or mail, the General Administration of Customs will organize service pilots until the end of 2015. After acceptance and the launch of the new policy in April 2016, several innovations and experiences were summarized.
The first is to explore a management system that adapts to the development of cross-border e-commerce, establish imported sunshine cross-border online shopping channels, lay out the medium and long-term industry layout, clean up “gray” entry, balance import taxes, product traceability and regulatory standards, The protection of consumer rights and interests guides the return of overseas consumption and forces the development and upgrading of domestic industries. It provides preferential tax policies for cross-border e-commerce, certifies enterprise qualifications through enterprise and product registration, and limits the scope of products; secondly, innovation in customs clearance models, through The automatic comparison of three orders enables classified customs clearance, rapid inspection and release, and reduces the pressure and cost of customs clearance. Guangzhou took the lead in launching a customs clearance policy of “list verification and summary declaration”; third, innovation in technological means, relying on the coordination advantages of electronic ports, to achieve The business collaboration and data sharing of e-commerce, payment, logistics and other enterprises realize timely sharing of information through multi-party system docking, and cross-check transaction, payment, logistics and declaration data through paperless declaration and electronic accompanying documents. Improve regulatory efficiency and rigor.
Industrial policies often undergo a process of repeated top-down and bottom-up revisions, and policies in different periods have obvious hierarchies. Usually a certain market shows unique growth prospects before policy, and the government hopes to cultivate such industrial opportunities.
For example, in cross-border, the State Council determines the overall direction, the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission provide planning guidance, the Ministry of Finance, Taxation, Foreign Exchange and the General Administration of Customs and other ministries and commissions provide top-level design, and the provincial commerce departments, economic and trade commissions, and local customs, etc. To promote the implementation of the model, the actual implementation process must contact the city-level commercial and trade authorities, the management committee of the port or regulatory area, the customs and commodity inspection in the area, and the bonded area operators, etc. Therefore, directional policies in the early stages of the industry are often interpreted by different people and are not standardized and unified at the operational level.
For example, the “Six Foreign Trade Regulations” have clearly stated that they will actively expand the import of goods and increase the scale of import discount funds. However, after the market has grown recklessly and “fished in troubled waters” for a period of time, the government is bound to issue new regulations to “correct” . Once the rule base on which the market operates changes with the policy, the chain reaction will be far beyond expectations. Obviously, not only cross-border e-commerce, but also many emerging industries have such experiences. Experience has proven that under the trend of market economy and globalization, it is better to formulate sustainable and institutional industrial policies at the national level than short-term preferential support. However, the benefits provided by local governments have the same effect on attracting investment. visible.
At present, the operational aspects of the policy still need to be refined. The export tax exemption without invoice has not yet been tried on a large scale. The threshold for tax refund is high. There is no need to be taxed after export. There are still breakthroughs in national taxation and foreign administration. Exports The commodity codes for customs declaration are not simplified and classified, and the workload is heavy; the supervision in each pilot city is not unified, which not only causes the duplication of “windows” but also increases the cost of enterprise docking; cross-border e-commerce that uses express mail and customs clearance has not yet been well established. Inclusion in trade statistics; “positive list” of cross-border imports of Sword of Damocles still pending.