- 陶小凡
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1 China eliminates export tax rebates for 2,831 commodities .
中国消除2831种商品的出口退税。
China"s Ministry of Finance said Tuesday that, starting July 1, the country would cut or eliminate export tax rebates for 2,831 commodities representing 37 percent of the total number of items listed on customs tax regulations.
A ministry spokesman said the move was one of a basket of measures to suppress overheated export growth and ease frictions between China and its trade partners.
The country will abolish export tax rebates on 553 "highly polluting products that consume heavy amounts of energy and resources" such as salt, cement, and liquefied petroleum gas, said the spokesman.
Tax rebate on exports of 2,268 commodities which "tend to cause trade frictions" will be reduced, he said.
The country will scrap the export tax for ten commodities including shelled peanuts, canvas, wood for carving and stamps, according to the spokesman.
The new tax rebate system will have five levels, namely 17 percent, 13 percent, 11 percent, 9 percent and 5 percent.
The spokesman said the cost of producing the 2,831 commodities would increase as a result of the changes to the export tax rebate regime. This would incite capital investment to move to other "high value-added and high tech" industries.
In the long run, this would help the country develop in an economic and sustainable way, he said.
Customs statistics show that from January to May, the country reported a trade surplus of 86 billion U.S. dollars, up 83 percent on the corresponding period of last year.
Soaring exports have increased liquidity in the domestic market
2 Export Rebate Policy Improves Technical Content----by <china foreign trade:English edition>
出口退税促进技术含量高的工业发展——摘自《中国对外贸易-英文版》
Abstract:China has adjusted the policy on export rebates this year, and the tax rebate rate has been reduced. The relevant export statistics indicate that although the policy adjustment somewhat prevents the growth rate of the general trade export in Shanghai, it enhances the technical content of the export products in Shanghai and improves the structure of the export commodities.
3 Traders hail new export rebate policy
贸易商对出口退税政策表示赞同
China"s new export tax rebate policy is proving effective in optimizing the nation"s export structure and improving the financial profile of its trading firms, according to a senior trade expert.
Many of the nation"s trading firms gave a frosty response to the new policy when it was issued at the beginning of this year, believing it would hurt their business, said Wednesday"s China Daily.
But Liu Yuqin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Co-operation (CAITEC), a think-tank of the Ministry of Commerce, told China Daily that these firms are now beginning to appreciate the policy.
She said that "judging from the first four months" figures, the new rebate policy does not hamper exporters" activities as seriously as earlier anticipated."
The policy encourages higher added value exports, Liu said.
It also aims to protect the environment by greatly reducing the export rebate rates of natural resources and highly polluting products, encouraging manufacturers to use more advanced technologies.
"The rebate drop is conducive to improving the export composite in the long term," said Liu.
A further indication that the new policy is proving to be effective can be found in the 33.5 per cent year-on-year increase in the nation"s total export value in the first four months of 2004, totalling US$162.7 billion.
The export tax rebate rate was reduced by an average of 3 percentage points from 15.51 per cent, with the central government only paying 75 per cent of the rebates that exceed the 2003 amount, with the remaining 25 per cent being paid by local governments.
The move is designed to ease the central government"s financial burden and reduce the pressure for a revaluation of the renminbi.
The central government has expedited the rebate payment process since the new policy came into effect.
Assistant Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying said that the government has now basically paid all of the rebates it owed to trading firms.
The central and local governments paid export tax rebates totalling US$33.5 billion in March alone, a 51.8 per cent year-on-year rise.
Traders have welcomed the prompt process, saying their financial performance has been dramatically improved by the timely payment of rebates.
"We have got all the arrears, which should be paid in 2003," said a manager of Jingtaihang Motorcycle Co, a private export company based in Nanjing, the capital of eastern China"s Jiangsu Province.
"Under the new rebate regime, we can get the payment one month after we submit all the required materials," she added.
Rebates were previously in arrears for several months or even years.
Jiangsu Sainty Co, a textile company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, said in April it had received overdue rebates totalling 492 million yuan (US$59.5 million), payments which should have been made either in 2003 or earlier.
Timely payment of rebates helps the company optimize its financial structure, and somewhat offset its losses due to falling rebate rates drops and rising raw material prices.
"Many companies prefer timely rebate payment to a higher rebate rate," Liu said.
But she warned that the policy was far from perfect, pointing out that it required further improvement.
Some local governments, particularly in the relatively underdeveloped regions of western China, cannot afford to pay the rebates to export firms.
This will greatly curb local trading firms" incentives, Liu said.
Some cities complained that they have to pay the rebates of all local exports, although the goods are not necessarily manufactured by local firms.
"This could lead to local protectionism," Liu suggested, but pointed out this has not yet happened.
Her view is echoed by some local officials.
Yu Danhua, an official in Ningbo in East China"s Zhejiang Province, said local protectionism could be prevented by the introduction of a system in which those who levy the tax pay the rebate.
"We should watch for a longer time to see if the rebate scheme needs to be revised," Liu said.
Source: China Daily
4 China"s Export Tax Rebate Changes are a BIG DEAL
中国出口退税政策改变是一项大“贸易”
Posted At : June 29, 2007 9:14 AM
Related Categories: Spend Management, World Trade
Even though it"s not making popular headlines yet, the recently announced export tax rebate changes in China are a huge deal for companies sourcing and exporting from the mainland. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal last week, "China"s finance ministry announced that export-tax rebates will be scrapped or reduced on more than 2,000 goods, in the government"s latest attempt to address the growing economic and political pressures brought by its massive trade surplus ... Rebates on exported goods of China"s 17% value-added tax will be eliminated on 553 categories including aluminum products, salt, cement and fertilizers. The proportion of the VAT that is rebated will be cut on 2,268 types of products including shoes, clothing and plastic goods. The changes are likely to push up the final price of Chinese exports, and follow a similar reduction of tax rebates for steel products announced in May."
Why are these changes so dramatic for companies engaged in China sourcing? Many procurement organizations getting started in China -- or those who are not mired in China trade details -- don"t realize that much (and sometimes all) of the profit of their Chinese suppliers is tied up in the VAT rebate they get back from the government after each container ships. I know of a number of China sourcing deals at the moment which may make less -- or no -- financial sense after the rebate reduction / elimination goes into effect. It may also serve to make such near-shore options as Mexico and Brazil -- not to mention Central / Eastern Europe, India, Vietnam and other supply markets -- far more price competitive as well (though not as attractive as when the dollar was stronger 12-24 months ago).
- Jason Busch
Posted By : Jason Busch |
5 China to adjust export tax rebate rates from tomorrow
中国将从明日起调整出口退税率。
BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China will adjust some of its export tax rebate rates from tomorrow, aiming to achieve greater trade balance, according to a joint statement by five government agencies.
The statement was issued by the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation.
The statement said the export rebate on coal and natural gas has been abolished.
The tax rebate rate on steel products has been lowered from 11 pct to 8 pct, and the rate for some nonferrous metals has been cut to 5-11 pct from 13 pct.
Exports of textile and plastic will have a rebate rate of 11 pct, compared with 13 pct earlier.
The tax rebate rates of some IT products and high-tech products will increase to 17 pct from 13 pct, the statement added.
"The adjustments aim to improve the industry structure and promote a balanced development of international trade," it said.
- 里论外几
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China to Adjust Export Tax Rebate Mechanism
2006-07-23 16:27:05 Xinhua/China Daily
China will reduce tax rebates on exports of high energy-consuming, resource-intensive and environmentally-harmful products, Chinese officials say.
The as-yet unreleased policy is scheduled to take effect around September or October despite strong protests from domestic companies and traders, according to China"s Caijing magazine.
The move reflects the Chinese government"s efforts to shift emphasis away from low-value-added exports. "The Chinese government wants to see a trade balance. We don"t deliberately seek a rising surplus," says Chong Quan, spokesman of China"s Ministry of Commerce.
Introduced in 1985, the tax rebates for exporters have made Chinese products more competitive on the international market.
It is now expected that China will cut tax rebates by an average of two percent for sectors such as textiles, metallurgy, iron and steel. Only high-tech industries avoid the knife -- their rebate is being increased.
"Export rebates for high energy-consuming, high-polluting and resource-intensive products should be stopped," says Fu Ziying, assistant to the Minister of Commerce.
Trade surplus
Booming exports have contributed significantly to the Chinese economic miracle. In recent years, the cart of the Chinese economy has been hauled by the two "strong horses" of investment and foreign trade, with the "weak donkey" of consumption tottering in the middle.
To sustain steady development of the national economy, China"s policymakers aim to spur domestic consumption by increasing consumer purchasing power.
Such a strategy can help rein in over-investment, ease pressures on the Renminbi and dissuade foreign anti-dumping lawsuits resulting from the mammoth trade surplus, industry officials say.
In the five years since China"s accession to the WTO, the country"s foreign trade has grown at an average annual rate of over 30 percent.
Semi-manufactured goods
By increasing export tariffs and lowering export rebates in 2005, the Chinese government enjoyed some success in curbing exports of high energy-consuming, high-polluting and resource-intensive products: coal exports dropped 12.7 percent, coke exports dropped 10.7 percent, billet exports dropped 35.6 percent, and exports of non-forged aluminum dropped 20 percent year on year in the first six months of this year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
However, to get round such restrictions, many Chinese businesses found a new strategy: they began processing materials slightly -- not completely -- for export. Thus the bulk of Chinese exports moved from resource-intensive products to preliminary processed products and semi-finished products.
China"s exports of semi-finished aluminum products, for instance, surged 57 percent year on year to more than 400,000 tons in the first five months of this year, according to Chinese Customs statistics. The new adjustment reported in Caijing therefore targets semi-finished resource-intensive products with low added value, and for good reason.
"We must not go on selling resource-intensive materials to the overseas market," said Zhang Ping, former deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission.
Unhappy exporters
The rebate cuts have not pleased domestic firms. Chinese mills and exporters, with their narrowing profit margins, argue the reduction of export rebates will hurt key Chinese industrial sectors.
"We disagree with cutting the tax rebates because the country"s steel industry is still troubled with oversupply," says Qi Xiangdong, deputy general secretary of China Iron and Steel Association. The Association has more than 60 domestic steel mill members. In May 2005 China cut tax rebates on steel product exports from 13 percent to 11 percent.
It is reported that high-value-added steel products, namely galvanized plate and silicon steel, will remain at the same 11 percent rate, but low-value-added products such as rods, reinforced bars, round steel and hot-rolled medium plate will be cut to 8 percent.
Driven by high steel product prices in the international market, China"s steel product exports have shown robust growth since the beginning of the year. In the first five months, China"s steel product exports hit a new high of 12.7 million tons, up 35.2 percent, while imports decreased 27.6 percent to 7.8 million tons.
"China"s steel product exports continued to increase and steel product prices recovered significantly this year, although China was still seriously hampered by steel overcapacity," said Jia Liangqun, a vice general manager with Mysteel, a leading steel consulting firm.
But Jia asserts that steel prices will drop in the second half of the year: due to the new tax rebate policy and a cool off in China"s fixed asset investments.
Baosteel Group, the largest of its kind in China, will see its export costs rise by RMB 150 ($18.75) per ton after the tax rebate for steel plate exports is reduced, said Wang Xishun, an official with the export department of the group.
Steel plate is Baosteel"s main export, with 10 percent of its steel plates exported to foreign markets each year. Baosteel will try to counter the new policy, Wang said.
A similar situation exists with the textile and machine-building industries, and to lower export rebates rate for them may help these industries upgrade industrial structure, industry officials said. Many Chinese corporations have also considered shifting their business strategy from commodity exports to overseas investment.
Industry officials propose a transition period. "According to international practice, enterprises need a proper preparation period, lasting from three months to six months," said Long Guoqiang, deputy director-general of Foreign Economic Relations, Development Research Center of the State Council.