The Ministry of Commerce may take over the right of foreign trade

Introduction: new page 1 China's agricultural trade community has finally waited for the new management method of agricultural product import quota they want This approach will give the Ministry of Commerce greater powers and more transparency in the allocation of quotas On July 28, the Ministry of Commerce of the people's Republic of China and the national development and Reform Commission jointly issued announcement No 34 of 2003 to solicit opinions from the public on the revision of the Interim Measures for the administration of import tariff quotas of agricultural products The deadline for consultation is August 8, 2003 Uud said that the two ministries received a lot of feedback, but it is unlikely that these opinions will be adopted, because these opinions obviously exceed the "real bottom line" of the reformer In this way, if there is no accident, a major revision of the measures will guide the future import management of agricultural products Uud development and Reform Commission? In January last year, uud launched the measures for the first time to protect domestic agriculture and gradually open the agricultural product market For the agricultural products that uud is included in the quota management, low tariff shall be applied to the import part within the quota, and high tariff shall be applied to the import part outside the quota, so as to protect the interests of China's agriculture and farmers and prevent the excessive import of low-cost agricultural products from foreign countries from impacting the domestic market The biggest difference between uud's revision and it is that the final issuer of the interim measures will be changed from the former National Development Planning Commission to the Ministry of Commerce and the national development and Reform Commission Uud "two in decentralization?" Some people question whether it will increase transaction costs if one management becomes two? According to the announcement of uud, the reason for the modification is "according to the functional adjustment after the reform of the new government institutions and the implementation of the measures in the past more than one year, the Ministry of Commerce and the national development and Reform Commission have preliminarily revised the Interim Measures for the administration of import tariff quotas of agricultural products" Uud "is not decentralization, but tends to centralization" According to Dr Mei Xinyu, who studies China's foreign trade at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, it can be seen from the revised draft that article 7 stipulates that "the import tariff quota of wheat, corn, rice and cotton shall be allocated by the national development and Reform Commission together with the commercial sector The import tariff quotas of soybean oil, rapeseed oil, palm oil, sugar, wool and wool are allocated by the commercial sector " Although at first glance, there are two managers, the Ministry of Commerce and the national development and Reform Commission, this further shows that the state's foreign trade rights are gradually concentrated in the Ministry of Commerce In the original system, the rights of national foreign trade and foreign investment are distributed and controlled by the former State Planning Commission and the former Ministry of foreign trade and economic cooperation, among which the State Planning Commission mainly focuses on tariff quota and foreign investment utilization plan With the institutional function reform made by the two sessions this year, the newly established Ministry of Commerce will realize two major functional changes: first, centralize the power of domestic and foreign trade, and second, gradually unify the power of foreign trade to the Ministry of Commerce According to Dr Mei, the distribution management of two ministries and commissions in the administration of import tariff quotas of agricultural products "is a signal that the national development and Reform Commission has gradually transferred the right to foreign trade to the Ministry of Commerce" The theory that the power of uud has been quietly transferred has been recognized by the national development and Reform Commission at the same time In an interview with our reporter, an official from the economic and Trade Department of the national development and Reform Commission said that this is the need for the adjustment of the responsibilities of the management departments He revealed that the specific operation of the tariff quota is basically operated by the Ministry of Commerce In some cases, the development and Reform Commission will work with the Ministry of Commerce, but "this is temporary" Director Ke Bingsheng of the rural economic research center of the uud Ministry of agriculture also believes that the quota system will be a trade policy in nature After all, the Ministry of commerce is the competent department of foreign trade policy, "in the future, it may gradually transition to be managed by the Ministry of Commerce" "From the current draft of the revised opinions, the NDRC, together with the Ministry of Commerce, matches four agricultural products: wheat, corn, rice and cotton These products are still used as national strategic materials and need to be regulated by the NDRC, while non strategic materials are completely transferred to the Ministry of Commerce." Uud enterprises are not enough for this Fan has the final say that has the final say that the bulk tariff quota is determined by the national development and Reform Commission The small ministry has the final say of the Ministry of Commerce The change is "no substantial change, but a change in name", said fan, director general of the general manager office of Liaoning grain and oil import and export company Uud obviously, business owners engaged in specific business seem to prefer to be managed and allocated by the Ministry of Commerce Uud's "smart compromise" this revision of uud is also the result of the efforts of U.S trade representatives This revised draft cancels the classification a and B of the agricultural products import tariff quota certificate at one stroke, and implements one certificate management, which is considered as the most obvious change by the industry Uud A is a general trade quota, which is applicable to general trade import and donation, barter trade, border small trade and other ways of import (excluding processing trade); B is a processing trade quota, which is applicable to processing trade import The reason why uud countries divide the import tariff quota certificate of agricultural products into two categories: A and B is to facilitate the management of processing trade According to relevant regulations, products imported for processing trade must be processed before being returned to foreign countries, and shall not be sold in the domestic market for the protection of domestic products However, classification a and B were opposed by some trading countries such as the United States, which considered that the classification of quota certificates was "discrimination" Why did uud make such a big change? According to an official from the Department of economy and trade of the national development and Reform Commission, the revision is mainly based on the agreement between China and a member of the WTO, not on the basis of national conditions, but on the basis of some agreements that have to be revised Uud had previously repeatedly put pressure on China by U.S trade representatives on tariff quotas for agricultural products On February 21 this year, Deputy U.S trade representative Huntsman led a delegation to hold Sino-U.S trade consultations with more than 30 Chinese delegations headed by Ma Xiuhong, former deputy foreign trade minister, including the Ministry of agriculture, AQSIQ, China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the central bank, the State Intellectual Property Office and other ministries on agricultural tariffs, agricultural subsidies and other issues The U.S side calls for the elimination of tariff quota A and B classification of agricultural products, and strongly calls for further transparency of quota allocation Wang Xiaomin, Minister economic counsellor of the U.S Embassy in China, who participated in the negotiation, told our reporter that the U The revision of uud and the cancellation of classification a and B is obviously a compromise made by China, but "smart compromise" Director Ke Bingsheng of the rural economic research center of the Ministry of agriculture thinks that the change is of great significance Although the amendment is required by the foreign side, it is "more in line with the WTO principle of non discrimination, so that different enterprises enjoy equal treatment, and reduce the differences between other companies and re export companies" Uud does this harm the national interest? Dr Mei Xinyu can see the strategic change of national tariff quota management, that is, the main human and material resources are concentrated in other important areas to strengthen management, such as manufacturing industry and mineral industry, "because the impact of processing trade on agricultural products is not big", so the modification made by the state "does not harm the national interests" According to uud Mei Xinyu, the cancellation of the original "import batch that needs to be renewed for more than 12 times in this year" has a profound impact on the business operation of the enterprise This shows that enterprises are no longer affected by import batches and have more flexible disposal rights Because the price of agricultural products presents a divergent cobweb model, and the price fluctuation is relatively large, if the flexibility given to enterprises in terms of timing and batch is too small, it will have a great impact on the operating efficiency The import right of uud is still not fully liberalized, but some people in the industry think that the revised draft should further solve some fundamental problems Uud first from the perspective of business entities, like most varieties continue to be exclusively operated by COFCO A grain and oil trader in Changchun, Jilin complains that although there are quotas, some varieties must be represented by COFCO, which adds costs to the enterprise without any reason If we can release the restrictions on the import qualification of these varieties and import them directly by the end-user, at least we need to authorize several large grain enterprises to carry out import agency of varieties such as wheat, "without competition, it is difficult to talk about service quality" In terms of uud's specific opinions on the revised consultation draft of the interim measures, relevant personnel of COFCO group expressed that the issue was relatively sensitive when they were consulted by reporters As the chief executive was on a business trip, they did not express their opinions on it Can the exclusive operation of uud COFCO be changed? According to Dr Mei Xinyu, although COFCO has always been responsible for the import and export of strategic materials from the perspective of national security, some varieties can be considered to be withdrawn from the strategic position, "some of them do not pose a threat to the national economy and people's livelihood" He analyzed that agricultural products are labor-intensive and non land intensive in China China's per capita cultivated land is small Many products need to be imported in large quantities, relying on external resources rather than domestic resources Therefore, for those products with "alternative varieties and more alternative sources", the strategic position should be considered to be cancelled first Uud also has the most disputes on quota allocation In the revised consultation manuscript, Article 30 stipulates that "if the end user who holds the import tariff quota fails to complete the distribution of all the tariff quota amount of the import in the current year, and fails to return the tariff quota amount that cannot be achieved in the current year to the license issuing authority before September 15, the tariff quota amount allocated in the next year will be deducted correspondingly according to the proportion that has not been completed" The move was also opposed by some grain and oil traders, who believed that the punishment measures were not severe and could not contain the "buy and sell quota" They strongly suggested that for such end users, "they should be disqualified from applying for the distribution of tariff quota in the next year, rather than lightly" Transparency in the direction of uud distribution has also been a strong demand of the United States, which they believe is conducive to information symmetry and reduce trade costs But it is also a way for China to protect its own interests For this, some traders also suggest that if the distribution direction is transparent, it is conducive to eliminate the "monopolistic operation smell", abide by the rules of the game, and really drive the quota speculators out of the market The difference between the allocation of state-owned and non-state-owned quotas in uud is also controversial In the proposal submitted to the Ministry of Commerce, Shandong grain and oil company signed by Sun Wei asked, what is the state quota? What the benefits of state-owned quotas guarantee is not the trade benefits of state-owned enterprises, but the trade whose property rights belong to the state and whose benefits belong to the state But in fact, with the reform of the company, some of the original pure state-owned companies are also impure After participating in all kinds of capital, the main body is diversified, so who really represents the national interests? So what is the significance of retaining state-owned quotas? "In essence, it is to safeguard the interests of some vested interest companies" Dr uud Mei Xinyu put forward his personal suggestions The state can invite bids for state-owned quotas to let enterprises participate in the bidding, so as to obtain the right to operate Because, for example, in the implementation of national policies, there may be losses, and the state can subsidize the losses This is good for "introducing competition mechanism, reducing contradictions, and promoting the development of market economy" For the revision of the interim measures, the relevant state officials also said that it was difficult to operate them "For example, it is very difficult for enterprises to propose the annual processing trade volume," said an official from the Department of economy and trade of the national development and Reform Commission "Whether the modification is good or not is only known when it is put into operation, but also observed It's like changing traffic rules,