Trade rides digital wave, new formats

With China and its partners pushing for the RCEP agreement to become effective next year and preparing to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, it is vital for the country to establish such facilities in these zones as well as at the Hainan Free Trade Port, Li said.

Under the administration's five-year plan, the government will assist companies to conduct bonded area research and development, product testing, repair and remanufacturing businesses within FTZs and comprehensive bonded areas, and introduce new forms of Customs clearance facilitation measures for companies engaged in certain businesses like cross-border e-commerce, procurement trade and overseas warehouses.

Even though China's growth pace of foreign trade may slow down in the second half, the country will achieve the goal of steady expansion and improved quality in imports and exports this year despite challenges, including severe outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic overseas and surge in the prices of commodities, said Bai Ming, deputy director of international market research department at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing.

To boost global trade and stabilize the world's supply chain, China will host the 130th China Import and Export Fair in both offline and online forms from Oct 15 to Nov 3, the Ministry of Commerce announced in late July.

The event, better known as the Canton Fair, will be hosted in such an integrated format for the first time in its history. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the past three Canton Fairs were held online.