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Textile and garment industry will benefit for a long time

    On April 15, China formally deposited the approval letter of regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) with ASEAN, marking that China officially completed the RCEP approval procedure and became the first member of non ASEAN countries to formally complete the approval procedure. Liu Yaozhong, deputy director of International Trade Office of China Textile Industry Federation, said in an exclusive interview with the reporter of Economic Daily that RCEP will have a far-reaching positive impact on China's textile and garment industry in terms of expanding the scale of foreign trade and deepening the cooperation of industrial chain and supply chain.

  As the largest textile and garment market in the world, China plays an important role in the global textile industry chain. At present, China's textile industry accounts for more than 50% of the world's total, chemical fiber production accounts for 70% of the world's total, and trade accounts for one third of the world's total; From the perspective of industrial integrity, China's industrial chain is the most complete, and the product variety is the most complete; In terms of manufacturing level, the manufacturing technology and equipment level of fiber raw materials, spinning and weaving, clothing and home textile in China are mostly at the international advanced level.

"The biggest change brought about by RCEP is that China has established a new trade partnership with Japan, and the scale of Sino Japanese textile trade is expected to continue to expand in the future." Liu Yaozhong's judgment.

At present, Japan is the fourth largest export market of China's textile and garment industry. According to customs data, in 2019, China's textile and clothing exports to Japan reached US $20.88 billion, accounting for about 7.4% of the total annual export of the industry. According to the relevant statistical data of Japan, China will account for 58.6% of Japan's total textile and clothing imports in 2020. After RCEP comes into effect, except for a small number of products such as masks and bedding, the tariffs on the main textile products exported to Japan, such as knitwear, trousers, suits and T-shirts, will be cancelled within 16 years.

Liu Yaozhong said that as Japan has signed free trade agreements with ASEAN, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India and other countries, textile and garment products from these countries can enjoy duty-free treatment for export to Japan. After RCEP comes into effect, it will help Chinese industry to participate in international competition fairly in Japanese market, reduce export cost of foreign trade enterprises, and enhance international competitive advantage of products. At the same time, the original import tax rate of 5% to 8% for major categories of products imported from Japan will be reduced to zero in 11 to 21 years, which is conducive to accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the industry and improving production efficiency.

"From the perspective of regional production cooperation, it is expected to establish a more stable two-way investment environment. With the increase of investment, the improvement of production capacity and closer cooperation, the status of regional manufacturing center will be consolidated." Liu Yaozhong believes that the signing of RCEP will help deepen the cooperation of regional textile and garment industry chain and supply chain.

He said that market access rules for goods, services, investment and other fields among Member States will be further relaxed, and customs procedures and technical standards will be gradually unified. By adopting the rules of origin in the region, it will promote the free flow of economic factors in the region, strengthen the division of production and cooperation among members, promote the expansion and upgrading of consumption market in the region, and promote the further development of industrial chain, supply chain and value chain in the region.

For the foreign trade enterprises of China's textile and garment industry, RCEP is helpful to export more products and enjoy preferential tax measures; On the other hand, it also helps to avoid some trade barriers.

It is understood that after RCEP comes into effect, if an enterprise passes the customs certification and becomes an approved manufacturer, it can clear the customs only with the enterprise's independent declaration of origin when exporting, and enjoy the preferential treatment of the contracting state, which saves the entry, verification, application and other links of the certificate of origin, and further reduces the timeliness and cost of customs clearance.

At the special training meeting on RCEP policy organized by Shenzhen customs, Ms. Cao, director of customs affairs of Shenzhen robust Medical Products Co., Ltd., was very happy to learn about the regulation. She said: "our company issues more than 30 certificates of origin of non-woven fabrics to Southeast Asia every week. Since the customs launched service measures such as self-service printing and intelligent examination and signature, the application for certificates of origin can no longer go to the customs site. I can't imagine that RCEP can also open and close the Customs on its own, which will be more convenient in the future."