The policy of promoting the growth of service trade is imminent

In the first eight months, China's service trade maintained a growth trend. The reporter of China Securities News learned that, in order to further improve and optimize the policies and measures to adapt to the development characteristics and needs of service trade, the policy document on opening up and innovative development of service trade is expected to be released before the end of the year; The national version of the negative list of cross-border service trade was accelerated. In addition, relevant departments will continue to promote the effectiveness and implementation of the WTO domestic regulation negotiations on trade in services in China, and further optimize the business environment.

Maintain the growth trend

Facing the complex and severe external environment, China's trade in services has shown strong development resilience and maintained rapid growth. The latest data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that from January to August, China's service import and export amounted to 4253.37 billion yuan, up 8% year on year.

"On the whole, in the first eight months of this year, trade in services operated smoothly and its quality continued to improve, which reflected the strong resilience and potential of China's trade in services and laid a solid foundation for the high-quality development of trade in services throughout the year," said Chen Jianwei, a professor of the National Institute of Opening up Studies at the University of International Business and Economics.

In terms of specific areas, the proportion of knowledge intensive service trade has increased. From January to August, the import and export of knowledge intensive services reached 1813.94 billion yuan, up 10.4% year on year, accounting for 42.6% of the total import and export of services, 0.9 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

Lan Qingxin, a professor of the Beijing Institute of Opening up Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, believes that the increase in the proportion of knowledge intensive service trade shows that the high-tech, high value-added, high-quality and quantitative growth trend of service trade is obvious, and it has become an important force leading China's trade power construction.

In addition, travel services continued to recover. From January to August, the import and export of travel services reached 919.99 billion yuan, up 69.5% year on year, making it the fastest growing service trade. Among them, exports grew by 54.9% and imports by 70.7%. "This is closely related to the continuous liberalization of border control measures in China's travel field, such as expanding team travel destinations, increasing airline flights, driving cross-border tourism, studying abroad and cross-border business activities," said Li Jun, director of the Institute of International Trade in Services of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce.

"It is expected that the scale of service import and export will keep growing throughout the year, and the trade structure will continue to be optimized," said the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce.

Promote the opening up of service trade

Service trade is an important part of international trade and an important embodiment of trade transformation and upgrading and economic structure upgrading. Lan Qingxin believes that we should attach great importance to the deep opening up of the service industry, vigorously promote the development of service trade, actively participate in the formulation of international service trade rules, share the achievements of China's service trade and service industry opening up with countries around the world, and release more development opportunities.

The Ministry of Commerce has made it clear that it will take the initiative to connect with high standard international economic and trade rules and steadily promote the opening up of the service trade field. According to the unified deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, we promoted the introduction of the national version and the pilot free trade zone version of the negative list of cross-border service trade, and initially formed the system of gradient opening of China's cross-border service trade. The reporter learned that the national version and the pilot free trade zone version of the negative list of cross-border service trade are expected to accelerate the launch.

The negative list of cross-border service trade is a major model adopted by the current international high standard free trade agreements in making opening arrangements in related fields. In 2021, China's first negative list of cross-border service trade - Special Administrative Measures for Cross border Service Trade in Hainan Free Trade Port (Negative List) (2021 Edition) was released.

"At present, the list is well implemented in Hainan, which has become an important reform in the opening up of China's service industry and laid a solid foundation for wider implementation." Sheng Qiuping, vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce, said at a news conference held by the State Council Reform Office a few days ago.

Sheng Qiuping revealed that at present, the negative list of foreign investment access in the pilot free trade zone has achieved "zero clearing" of the manufacturing industry, and the next step will focus on promoting the opening of the service industry. We will work with relevant departments to deepen research and promote the rational reduction of the negative list of foreign investment in the pilot free trade zone. At the same time, we promoted the introduction of the national version of the negative list of cross-border service trade, leading the country to continue to expand opening up.

Xiao Benhua, vice president of the Free Trade Zone Research Institute of Shanghai Lixin Institute of Accounting and Finance, believes that promoting the opening up of the service industry plays an important role in promoting the development of service trade and improving the quality of trade. On the one hand, it will attract more foreign capital into China's service industry, and on the other hand, it will further expand the export of service trade.

Promote the innovative development of service trade

The policy measures to promote the innovative development of service trade and further optimize the development environment of service trade are expected to increase while promoting the expansion of opening up in the field of service trade. The reporter learned that the policy document on opening and innovative development of service trade is expected to be launched before the end of the year. At the same time, relevant departments will accelerate the implementation of the Reference Document on Domestic Regulation of Trade in Services within the WTO framework.

In order to promote the opening and innovative development of service trade, in August 2020, to promote the optimization of foreign trade structure and high-quality development, the State Council approved to carry out comprehensive deepening of service trade innovation and development pilot projects in 28 places, including Beijing and Shanghai.

"Over the past three years, 28 pilot regions have taken the initiative to explore the system and mechanism, policy system and opening path of innovative development of service trade, and actively built a highland of innovation in service trade system. The cumulative number of pilot tasks and measures promoted by each pilot region has reached 2883, forming a series of pilot achievements and innovation experience, effectively leading and driving the innovative development of service trade across the country." Wang Dongtang, Director of the Department of Trade in Services and Trade in Services of the Ministry of Commerce, said recently.

According to the deployment of the State Council, the pilot project of comprehensively deepening the innovative development of service trade will expire this year. Wang Dongtang revealed that, in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, upgrade and build a national service trade innovation and development demonstration zone on the basis of comprehensively summarizing the results of the pilot project, and create a new highland leading the opening and innovative development of service trade in the future at a high level.

"Upgrading and building a national service trade innovation and development demonstration zone is conducive to fostering new forms and models of service trade in more fields and creating new growth points for service exports," said Bai Ming, a researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce.

key word: Trade service development Cross border