RCEP policy dividends released continually, small and micro enterprises "ride the wind and go overseas"

Recently, in the customs clearance hall of Yantai Customs, Laiyang Huaan Craft Co., Ltd. issued a certificate of origin of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) for a batch of clothing worth 430,000 yuan exported to Japan. With this certificate, the enterprise's goods can enjoy a tariff reduction of 13,000 yuan when clearing customs in Japan.

Recently, in the customs clearance hall of Yantai Customs, Laiyang Huaan Craft Co., Ltd. issued a certificate of origin of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) for a batch of clothing worth 430,000 yuan exported to Japan. With this certificate, the enterprise's goods can enjoy a tariff reduction of 13,000 yuan when clearing customs in Japan.

Laiyang Huaan Craft Co., Ltd. is a small and micro enterprise that produces clothing, accessories and handicrafts. Its products are mainly exported to Japan. According to Zhang Fang, deputy manager of the company, after entering April, the products exported by enterprises to Japan ushered in the fourth round of tax reduction, and it is expected that the tariff concessions enjoyed this year will increase by another 50,000 yuan.

"With the RCEP certificate of origin, our clothing, handicrafts and other products exported to Japan can enjoy tariff concessions ranging from 2.7 to 3.6 percentage points during customs clearance in Japan, which is a 'real money' benefit for our small and micro enterprises." Zhang Fang said that benefiting from the RCEP tariff concession dividend, the competitiveness of enterprises' export products has been greatly improved, and orders exported to Japan in 2023 will increase by more than 60% year-on-year. Since the implementation of RCEP, the company has exported products to Japan with a total value of 8.52 million yuan, and can obtain Japanese tariff concessions of 230,000 yuan with the RCEP certificate.

"Small, medium and micro enterprises occupy an important position in the foreign trade industry, but in our investigation, we found that some small and micro enterprises in the jurisdiction have insufficient understanding of RCEP preferential policies, low utilization rate, and do not fully enjoy policy dividends. Tariff reduction and exemption are very important for these enterprises to expand exports." Sun Xuhui, chief of the comprehensive business section of Yantai Customs Port Office, introduced that in response to this situation, the customs has accumulated more than 2,000 training enterprises through "online + offline" integration forms such as "cloud publicity" and special training, providing "one-on-one" door-to-door assistance and publicity for 171 enterprises, using data analysis to form a list of preferential qualifications for enterprises, and constantly improving the accuracy of policy publicity.

Yantai Customs actively promotes intelligent audit and self-service printing service measures, and adds self-service printing equipment in county government service centers, benefiting more than 200 small and micro enterprises in surrounding areas and opening up the "last mile" of service enterprises. Today, more than 90% of origin visas have achieved "no waiting" and "no errands", helping small and micro enterprises fully enjoy the dividends of the RCEP policy.

This year is the third year that RCEP has officially come into effect. Institutional dividends such as tariff concessions, accumulation rules of origin, and trade facilitation that are being continuously released are playing an increasingly significant role in helping enterprises reduce costs, guarantee orders, expand markets, and optimize industrial chains.

Yantai Dongsen Shoes Co., Ltd. is a small and micro enterprise mainly engaged in leather shoe processing and export, and the RCEP policy dividend has also benefited the enterprise a lot.

"The cost of cow leather, the main raw material used in our production, has a great impact on the profits of the whole enterprise. In the policy assistance of the customs, we learned that RCEP has a cumulative rule, which can regard raw materials from other RCEP countries as China's original materials." Liu Yanjin, general manager of the company, said that after understanding the cumulative rules, enterprises focus on purchasing cow leather raw materials from Thailand, Japan and other member countries, processing them into leather shoes and then exporting them to Japan, so as to control costs and enjoy preferential tariff treatment in Japan.

The cumulative rule of origin is a highlight of RCEP in trade in goods. According to this rule, the original materials used by other member countries in the production process of enterprises can be regarded as the original materials of their own countries, which can cumulatively increase the proportion of original value components, make it easier for export products to reach the threshold of enjoying preferential tariffs, and promote the minimization of regional production costs and the optimization of trade efficiency, which is conducive to strengthening regional industrial chain and supply chain cooperation.

"RCEP not only allows our company to enjoy 3.6% Japanese tariff reduction, but also optimizes the supply chain and greatly reduces production costs." Liu Yanjin said that now the company and the original Japanese customers have stronger orders stickiness, and has also successfully opened up two new customers. With customers, foreign trade business data continues to improve, and the value of goods exported to Japan in the first quarter increased by 55% year-on-year.

Statistics show that in the first quarter of this year, Yantai Customs issued a total of 4,034 RCEP certificates of origin, a year-on-year increase of 18.9%, with a preferential value of 790 million yuan, which can reduce the tariffs of importing countries by 15.8 million yuan for export enterprises.

In the next step, Yantai Customs will continue to improve the level of visa facilitation of origin, strengthen the tracking of RCEP implementation effects, guide and help small and micro enterprises understand the rules, optimize the layout, enjoy the dividends of RCEP policies, and help small and micro enterprises "ride the wind to sea". (Guo Qingling/Text)