Measures to integrate trade faster adopted

State Council meeting highlights need to benchmark against international standards

The State Council, or China's Cabinet, adopted a package of policy measures on Friday to integrate its domestic and foreign trade at a faster pace, as part of the country's efforts to create a new development paradigm and promote high-quality growth.

According to the State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang, it's imperative to benchmark against international standards and expedite the adjustment and improvement of relevant domestic rules, regulations and management, so as to accelerate the integration of domestic and foreign trade.

Such efforts will facilitate the alignment of domestic and foreign trade standards, as well as inspection, certification and supervision, ensuring that products sold domestically are produced on the same production lines, meet the same standards, and are of the same quality as exported products, the meeting said.

Attendees at the meeting called for dedicated efforts to fine-tune policies in a timely manner should the needs of businesses and market feedback require this. Meanwhile, further steps should be employed to remove key bottlenecks hindering the integration of domestic and foreign trade, and help enterprises to fully leverage both domestic and international markets.

It's of vital importance to foster a more enabling environment to better integrate domestic and foreign trade, and advance the effective implementation of relevant fiscal and financial support policies, in a bid to help domestic and foreign trade grow in a mutually reinforcing way, it was said.

In January, the Ministry of Commerce, along with another 13 departments, began a pilot program to integrate domestic and foreign trade in nine provincial regions, namely Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan and Guangdong provinces, as well as the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The pilot program aimed to cultivate a batch of enterprises operating such businesses, build a number of platforms to facilitate their development, foster a group of globally competitive industrial clusters, and improve relevant mechanisms, the ministry said.

The executive meeting also adopted a draft revision of the Mineral Resources Law. Noting that mineral resources are an important material basis for economic and social development, attendees agreed that there is an urgent need to amend the law in line with the shifting dynamics, to better protect the country's mineral resources and ensure the security of its strategic resources.

It is necessary to explore and develop important energy and mineral resources, and to discover more reserves and boost production. In addition, efforts should be made to deepen international cooperation and strengthen the construction of the reserve system, in order to consolidate the foundation of mineral resource security, the meeting said.

Vigorous work should be done to advance innovation in technological equipment, promote the green and intelligent transition of the industry, and enhance the resilience and competitiveness of the industrial chain, the meeting added.

Reporting by Wang Keju (China Daily); editing by Wang Jingzhong (Yunnan Gateway)