China Releases 12th Five-Year Plan for Trade in Electromechanical and High-Tech Products

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Jun. 7 – China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) released “The 12th Five-Year Plan for the Import and Export of Electromechanical and High-tech products (shangchanfa [2012] No. 56, hereinafter referred as ‘the Plan’)” on June 4 to accelerate the evolution of the country’s current foreign trade structure and economic development model. The Plan aims at an annual growth rate of 10 percent in imports and exports of electromechanical and high-tech products during 2011-2015, reaching a total of US$2.5 trillion by 2015.

The Plan’s six major tasks include:

  1. Promoting the transformation of the economic growth pattern and optimizing new competitive advantages
  2. Implementing a market diversification strategy and improving the export market structure
  3. Regulating enterprises’ operational behavior and rebuilding microeconomic mechanisms for export
  4. Implementing protective measures to promote imports and optimizing the import structure
  5. Extending the domestic value-added chain and accelerating the reform of the processing trade industry
  6. Developing emerging industries of strategic importance and cultivating new sources of growth in export

Eight measures
Besides setting major tasks for key industries, the Plan also lists eight substantial measures to improve import and export of electromechanical and high-tech products.

The eight measures are:

  1. Improving policy mechanisms for the export industry
  2. Developing policy mechanisms to encourage import
  3. Strengthening the industrial supporting system
  4. Optimizing reforms and transformation in the processing trade industry
  5. Creating a fair and standardized trade environment
  6. Enhancing the policy mechanism for IPR protection
  7. Facilitating the administrative procedures for foreign trade
  8. Increasing the mechanisms of job security

By strengthening the coordination and cooperation among finance, banking, investment, trade and other policy measures, the government is devoted to establishing a policy mechanism to promote the import and export of electromechanical and high-tech products that complies with both domestic situations and relevant WTO regulations. In order to meet the goal of building a sound credit system for the export industry, related authorities will make efforts to strengthen the development of corporate social responsibility and timely assessment of export enterprises’ credit ratings.

In addition, the Plan aims to help enterprises understand the regulations, rules and conformity assessment procedures of major importing countries, as well as guide enterprises to conduct foreign trade and overseas investment by putting extra emphasis on collecting, collating and translating technical regulations, certification and product standards of the key import/export markets.

In order to accelerate the liberalization of trade and facilitation of the administrative procedures for the import and export of electromechanical and high-tech products – as well as to promote regional and sub-regional co-operation – an online data-sharing platform will be created. The platform will be used for sharing files, handling customs declarations and processing administrative approval for both the customs authorities and processing trade enterprises. Eventually, this online data-sharing platform will be extended to foreign currency exchange, taxation, inspection, quarantine and other relevant departments.

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