Online event stabilizes trade and industrial structure

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the China Import and Export Fair, better known as the Canton Fair, has been held online for three sessions.

But it has still made an important contribution in stabilizing foreign trade and industrial and supply chains, experts said.

Huo Jianguo, deputy director of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, said the online sessions can be considered a positive practice for exploring new trade patterns.

According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, China’s cross-border exports and imports in the first quarter of this year generated 8.47 trillion yuan ($1.3 trillion). It marks an increase of 29.2 percent over the same period of 2020. Exports soared 38.7 percent year-on-year.

But in the long term, foreign trade development faces many unstable factors and new challenges, Huo said.

With the economic recovery of multiple countries and wider distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the global market will become more competitive. The International Monetary Fund projected in its latest World Economic Outlook report, issued on April 6, that the global economy will grow by 6 percent in 2021. This is higher than its previous forecast. In addition to remaining optimistic about China’s economy, the IMF has shown optimism in the economic recovery of European and American countries.

Also, the recent large-scale monetary easing policy of the US Federal Reserve is to bring adverse effects to Chinese export-oriented companies in terms of production costs and the benefit of foreign exchange settlement.

Moreover, some countries have politicized international trade and investment. Without effective control, it will spread to more normal trade and investment and cause a certain amount of economic losses. The business environment in China needs further improvement, especially for small and medium-sized companies.

This is the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and one of the key missions is to speed up the construction of a new development pattern, Huo said.

The Canton Fair, as a platform serving China’s opening-up, has played a key role in aiding and promoting the development of the country’s export-oriented economy and made great contributions to the development of the national economy.

Huo said to host the fair in a high-quality way is important in boosting China’s dual-circulation development paradigm. And it is necessary to resume the offline fair as soon as possible on the premise of the effective control of the pandemic at a national level. It can better stabilize the relationship between foreign trade companies and their customers, and is an effective way of stabilizing industrial and supply chains.

Huo also suggested the fair innovate its mechanisms and business models and build diversified service platforms to adjust to the changes taking place in international trade patterns.