The implementation of cross-border e-commerce export tax rebate will become a new outlet to boost trade

When China’s traditional trade model has begun to suffer from the rigid increase in labor costs and the simultaneous shrinkage of domestic and foreign demand, the golden period of exports has gradually dissipated. They need to wait for the next wave. After several years of debate, preparation, and deliberation, the right time, right place, right people, and right people are now in place. Policymakers and industry professionals have set their sights on cross-border trade e-commerce, which represents International Trade 3.0.
The State Council executive meeting on the 10th pointed out that promoting the healthy and rapid development of cross-border e-commerce and using “Internet + foreign trade” to achieve optimal import and export will be conducive to expanding consumption, promoting the development and upgrading of the open economy, and creating new economic growth points. The meeting actually injected four much-needed boosters into the enterprise.
When asked by reporters, companies in the industry all believed that it was a great benefit, but they also said that what was needed were concrete measures to be implemented, rather than a “beautiful-looking” plan.
Informed sources revealed to this reporter that relevant departments are formulating specific regulatory measures for cross-border trade platforms to refine the previously controversial fiscal and taxation, risk assessment, and transparent government docking mechanisms in the industry.
​Four doses of cross-border e-commerce
​Cross-border e-commerce is divided into two types: import and export, which means adding overseas business to the e-commerce platform for import and export.
Export pilot cities are now basically liberalized. There are a total of 7 import pilot cities: Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou, as well as Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Liang Qingqin is the founder and CEO of Mumusi, a cross-border e-commerce export agency operating company. She is mainly responsible for providing branding, marketing, warehousing and logistics services for domestic companies on overseas e-commerce platforms. Since our customers are mainly export companies, we understand the difficulties faced by our customers in cross-border e-commerce.
She told reporters that in fact, customers have been doing cross-border trade e-commerce business, mainly exporting manufacturers’ products directly to sell on large overseas e-commerce platforms, such as EBAY and AMAZON. These e-commerce platforms will A commission of 9% to 17% is drawn based on sales volume.
The current problem is that export companies cannot make export declarations for cross-border trade e-commerce business to the customs, nor can they enjoy the export tax rebates of general trade companies.
Liang Qingqin gave this reporter an example. Currently, manufacturers export a container of products overseas, 1/3 of which may go through traditional trade export agent channels, and 2/3 export through cross-border trade e-commerce. However, since the customs does not have a corresponding classification department, all products can only be declared through general trade. Moreover, export companies cannot provide valid data from downstream manufacturers to prove that they are a cross-border trade e-commerce company.
Since last year, she has heard constant rumors in the industry that cross-border e-commerce export promotion policies are about to be implemented, but so far no one has applied for government-recognized qualifications. Specific incentive policies such as export tax rebates have yet to be implemented.
What excites her is that the first and second two of these four measures happen to meet the needs of symptomatic customers.
First, optimize the customs clearance process, simplify the classification of cross-border e-commerce export commodities, implement business entity and commodity registration management, and adopt convenient measures such as centralized declaration, inspection, release and 24-hour receipt of imported and export commodities. The second is to implement the tax refund and tax policy for cross-border e-commerce retail export goods. Encourage cross-border electronic payments, promote cross-border foreign exchange payment pilots, and support domestic bank card clearing institutions to expand overseas business.
Xiao Feng is the deputy general manager of Shenzhen Yidatong Enterprise Service Co., Ltd. The company he works for mainly provides one-stop foreign trade services for small and medium-sized enterprises, that is, a comprehensive foreign trade service platform.
He is more concerned about Article 3, which encourages comprehensive foreign trade service companies to provide customs clearance, warehousing, financing and other services for cross-border e-commerce, guides companies to standardize their operations, and cracks down on illegal and infringing activities.
In the past year, Yidatong has made a total of more than 8 billion US dollars in transactions for more than 40,000 customers. But his worry is that in the past, the country has not found a reasonable way to supervise this new type of business. Specifically, the error rate requirements are too high, and the policies that small and medium-sized enterprises should enjoy are not in place.
“For example, our export error rate is 3 out of 10,000, but once a problem occurs with an order, the regulatory authorities will treat us severely as a foreign trade company without taking into account our risks and reasonable scope.” He said, “In addition, we We only serve small and medium-sized enterprise customers, and because of our large turnover, we have not been able to enjoy the bank’s deposit guarantee deposit discount for small and medium-sized enterprises.”
For those importing cross-border trade e-commerce, the most beneficial thing is the fourth point, which is to encourage cross-border e-commerce retail export companies to expand marketing channels through overseas warehouses, experience stores, etc., and cultivate their own brands and self-built platforms. Reasonably increase imports of consumer goods. Promote foreign trade to speed up, increase volume and increase efficiency.
Previously, these imported e-commerce companies triggered unfair accusations from traditional import companies. In the process of importing goods, traditional enterprises mainly collect customs duties, consumption tax and consumption tax on luxury goods.
Import e-commerce companies will collect personal postage tax. Personal postal tax is the abbreviation of import tax on luggage and postal items. It is a process levied by the customs on the luggage and postal items of inbound passengers.Tax is equivalent to “packaging” tariffs, value-added tax, consumption tax, etc. in the import link into one tax. Currently, the personal postal tax rate for most overseas products purchased by domestic consumers is 10%. This proportion is lower.
Customs officials told our reporter that these tax incentive policies will not change for the time being because cross-border traders currently mainly import daily consumer goods such as milk powder and diapers, rather than bulk commodities such as soybeans, crude oil, and iron ore. Different product structures do not cause significant unfairness.
Cross-border e-commerce is at the right time
​The continuous sluggish or even negative growth of exports in coastal areas and the continued sluggish overall import and export data have brought good opportunities for reform to innovative cross-border e-commerce and foreign trade comprehensive service platforms.
As early as 2013, the Ministry of Commerce stated at a special press conference on “e-commerce” that cross-border e-commerce has become a new development hotspot. While cross-border e-commerce is growing rapidly, it has put forward new demands on platforms, logistics, payment and settlement, customs and commodity inspection and other links, and has attracted great attention from government departments.
Cross-border e-commerce conforms to the international trend. The early 1990s was the era of International Trade 1.0, an era in which China’s state-owned enterprises acted as agents to conduct international trade business. After China’s accession to the WTO in 2001, the era of International Trade 2.0 began, in which Chinese OEM companies entered the international market sales link through international agents. The international trade 3.0 era represented by cross-border trade e-commerce, which has been brewing since 2010, directly enters overseas e-commerce platforms from factories and faces consumers directly.
In this process, China’s processing enterprises will move from the low-end links of the industrial chain of OEM, OEM, and industrial chain processing and assembly in the 2.0 era to the higher links of the international trade smile curve of brand marketing, eliminating the need for intermediate wholesale agents. price increase to face international consumers. This is in line with the transformation and upgrading development trend of China’s foreign trade enterprises. Liang Qingqin calculated an account for this reporter. In the 2.0 era, a product manufactured by a Chinese OEM company was sold to a foreign agent for US$10. These agents added tariffs and other taxes, and then through local distribution channels After increasing the price step by step, it may eventually reach the hands of consumers and sell for more than 100 US dollars. Moreover, you cannot use your own brand and can only use the agent’s brand. Now, through cross-border e-commerce, Chinese exporters can use their own brands to sell directly to consumers on overseas e-commerce platforms at a price of US$70. In this way, both Chinese companies and overseas consumers can benefit.
Its own good performance also provides a solid foundation for future growth. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, there were more than 200,000 cross-border e-commerce companies last year and more than 5,000 platform companies. Last year, the transaction volume reached 3.75 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 39%, showing a rapid growth trend. It is expected that by 2016, the annual growth rate of my country’s cross-border e-commerce import and export will exceed 30%, and the transaction volume will account for 20% of the total import and export trade.