China and the United States sign the first phase of economic and trade agreement

On January 9, China's Ministry of Commerce held its first regular press conference in 2020. In response to such hot issues as the signing of the first stage economic and trade agreement between China and the United States, the issuance of regulations on the export of artificial intelligence software by the United States, the cultivation of import trade promotion and Innovation Demonstration Zone, and the central reserve meat supply, the spokesperson of the Ministry of commerce responded one by one. The two sides are closely communicating on specific arrangements. According to Xinhua News Agency on December 13, 2019, through the joint efforts of the economic and trade teams of China and the United States, the two sides have reached an agreement on the text of the first phase of the economic and trade agreement between China and the United States on the basis of the principles of equality and mutual respect. The text of the agreement includes nine chapters: preamble, intellectual property rights, technology transfer, food and agricultural products, financial services, exchange rate and transparency, expanding trade, bilateral assessment and dispute settlement, and final provisions.

At the same time, the two sides reached an agreement that the United States will fulfill the relevant commitments of phasing out the imposition of tariffs on China's products, and realize the change from increasing to reducing the tariffs. After the first phase of the economic and trade agreement between China and the United States reached an agreement, all sectors of society have been paying close attention to when the agreement will be signed. At a press conference on January 9, Gao Feng said that at the invitation of the United States, Liu He, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, vice premier of the State Council and Chinese leader of the China US comprehensive economic dialogue, would lead a delegation to Washington from January 13 to 15 to sign the first phase of economic and trade agreement with the United States. The teams of both sides are in close communication on the specific arrangements for signing the agreement. In response to the question raised by the on-the-spot reporter "whether China will reduce the import from other countries after increasing the grain import from the United States and not involving the increase of grain import quota in the first phase of negotiations between China and the United States", the summit pointed out that China will continue to improve the measures for the administration of tariff quota of wheat, corn and rice in accordance with the WTO rules and WTO commitments, and will be fully market-oriented. " Use quotas. This does not contradict the expansion of US agricultural imports.

In addition, a reporter said, "recently, the U.S. government issued a regulation aimed at restricting the export of artificial intelligence software, and software applied in related fields will be subject to export control." In response, Gao said, the Chinese people are well aware of what closure will bring. Today, with the deep development of economic globalization, restricting and interfering with normal international cooperation will not only damage the interests of relevant enterprises, including American enterprises, but also cause the market's concerns about the trade and investment environment and innovation environment of the United States, and affect the stability of the international industrial chain. It is hoped that the US side will correct the wrong practices of generalizing national security and abusing export control measures, and create favorable conditions for normal trade and cooperation between enterprises of all countries. The trade promotion demonstration zone will consider the question raised by the reporter of regional coordination daily economic news at the press conference: "in order to further improve the level of trade facilitation, the Ministry of Commerce has disclosed that it will cultivate a number of import trade promotion and innovation demonstration zones. We have noted that there are currently four import trade demonstration zones in China, all of which are distributed in coastal areas. Will it be expanded in the future and how much? In addition, will a new batch of demonstration areas be located in the central and western regions? "In response, Gaofeng said that at present, the Ministry of commerce is evaluating and summarizing the relevant work and operation of the four existing import trade promotion and innovation demonstration areas.

From the current situation, the demonstration zone has played a positive role in promoting the cultivation of integrated import service platform, supply chain platform, trading platform, display platform and other aspects, and accumulated useful experience. "On the basis of the previous work, we will continue to advance the work of the demonstration area in depth. The construction of the new demonstration area will coordinate the existing demonstration area, give full consideration to the coordinated development of the regional layout of the East, the middle and the west, fully integrate the policy resources in combination with the local characteristics and advantages, and actively, steadily and orderly advance. " Gao Feng said. Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, told the daily economic news that China has clearly released the policy signal of expanding imports, and the import trade platform will be an important support for China to actively expand imports. At present, the import trade promotion and innovation demonstration areas of four countries are mainly concentrated in East China. Guangdong and Hainan in South China, Chongqing, Chengdu and Xi'an in the West also have strong transportation level and scientific and technological capacity. A new batch of demonstration areas may incline to these cities. In addition, in response to the hot topic of central reserve meat, Gaofeng said that as the Spring Festival approached, meat consumption gradually entered the peak season. In order to effectively increase the supply of meat market during the festival, the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments, launched the Sixth Batch of central reserve 20000 tons of frozen pork. At the same time, more efforts have been made in local reserve meat. It is preliminarily understood that at present, more than 90000 tons of local reserve pork have been or are being put in 20 places. Before the Spring Festival, some areas will arrange to put in local reserve meat in succession.