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In the past 30 years of China's reform and opening up, as far as reform is concerned, theory is ahead and practice is behind; As far as opening up is concerned, theory is backward and practice is leading. The reason is that the reform in the open field is not strong enough, the theoretical exploration is weak, and the ideological emancipation is insufficient. Since the reform and opening up, China's foreign trade system reform has experienced the following major breakthroughs: breaking through the foreign trade monopoly theory and gradually forming the market competition theory; Break through the theory that state-owned foreign trade companies do not distinguish between government and enterprise, and gradually form a company theory with China characteristics; Break through the single theory of foreign trade management and gradually form the theory of integration of trade, industry and agriculture; Break through the pure commodity trade theory and form a foreign trade theory with commodity trade as the mainstay and service trade as the supplement; Break through the "useless theory" of tariffs and form a more scientific tariff theory; Break through the "traitorous theory" of introducing foreign capital and form a more systematic theory of foreign capital; Break through the "debt-free theory" and form a complete foreign debt theory; Break through the fixed exchange rate theory and form a managed floating exchange rate theory; It broke through the "free theory" of foreign aid and formed the theory that foreign aid is linked with foreign trade and foreign aid is linked with foreign investment; Break through the regional blockade theory and form an open "window" theory and a "gradient" opening theory. This paper reviews and combs the evolution of China's foreign trade theory, policy and system reform in the past 30 years of reform and opening up, discusses the successful experience of reform and the main problems still existing, and summarizes the ideas and direction of future development.
Theoretical basis of China's foreign trade system before the reform and opening up.
Before the reform and opening up, China's foreign trade system theory mainly followed the basic ideas and framework of the former Soviet Union's economic theory, that is, the basic ideas of the planned economy theory. This theory requires direct allocation of economic resources according to the plan, instead of capitalism relying on market mechanism to allocate resources. In addition, the state monopoly thought in the foreign trade system is also the theoretical basis of China's old foreign trade system. On the basis of Lenin's thought of state monopoly on foreign trade, China decided to implement state monopoly on foreign trade according to the domestic economic situation and special international political and economic environment in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and stipulated in the Same Program that "the state controls foreign trade". China has established a highly centralized foreign trade system with unified leadership and management by the Ministry of Foreign Trade, unified management by specialized foreign trade companies, mandatory planning and self-financing. Under certain historical conditions, this foreign trade system is conducive to avoiding the deficit in China's international payments, protecting national childish industries and realizing the import substitution strategy. However, this system also has serious drawbacks, mainly as follows: First, it is difficult to mobilize local initiative and enthusiasm for exclusive operation. Second, unification is too dead, which is not conducive to the independent management ability of foreign trade enterprises. Third, all profits and losses are not conducive to foreign trade enterprises to embark on the road of independent operation, self-financing, self-development and self-discipline, which affects their enthusiasm.
Progress of foreign trade system reform theory after reform and opening up
At the beginning of the reform (1978-1986)-decentralization, separation of government from enterprise. After a year of preparation from 65438 to 0979, the reform of China's foreign trade system was officially launched on 1980, 1. Decentralization is the main theme of foreign trade system reform in this period. First of all, since June 1984, most provinces have the right to keep a certain proportion of foreign exchange income; From June 1985 to June 1, enterprises are allowed to use 50% of the retained foreign exchange independently. Secondly, 1984, 1 this month, 28 kinds of restricted goods were defined, and a number of institutions were allowed to import non-restricted goods without going through MOFTEC. Third, 1984 adopted a report on the reform of foreign trade system in September, including separation of government from enterprises, decentralization, implementation of foreign trade agency system, reform of foreign trade planning system and reform of foreign trade financial system. At this point, the highly centralized foreign trade corporation monopolized the national foreign trade, and the provinces and their subordinate foreign trade institutions began to become the main force of foreign trade activities. At present, although the reform of foreign trade system has been started, the problem of financial soft constraints of foreign trade enterprises has not been solved because the country's foreign trade is still self-financing. Therefore, a series of problems derived from the fundamental problem of "eating from the same pot" in foreign trade make the reform a long way to go.
The second stage of reform (1987- 1990)- foreign trade contracting, financial responsibility. In view of the problems existing in the reform and development in the primary stage, the foreign trade contract responsibility system with three indicators was tried out in 1987, and on the basis of gaining experience, the foreign trade contract responsibility system with provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions as the mainstay was implemented nationwide from 1988. The direction of reform is to establish a self-financing foreign trade system, liberalize management, combine industry and trade, and implement the agency system. By establishing and perfecting the economic adjustment system with exchange rate and tax as the main levers, foreign trade enterprises can be promoted to achieve self-financing Practice has proved that the implementation of the foreign trade contract responsibility system has initially changed the situation of separation of responsibilities and rights, greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of all parties and effectively promoted the development of foreign trade. The theoretical discussion of the second stage reform mainly focuses on the issue of foreign trade contract responsibility system. The responsibility system of foreign trade contract refers to that the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under separate state planning, as well as specialized foreign trade, industry and trade companies, undertake various business contracts with the state under the premise of separation of ownership and management rights (specifically, contracting includes three indicators: export earnings index, export exchange cost index and financial profit and loss index).
As scholar Li said, the direction of foreign trade system reform is not comprehensive only to mention that foreign trade enterprises are responsible for their own profits and losses and operate independently. Fundamentally speaking, the economic benefits of foreign trade are the differences in labor productivity among countries participating in international exchange in the form of money. The ultimate reason for the loss of China's export products lies in the low labor productivity of production enterprises, and China's advantage in low wage cost cannot offset the gap in labor productivity with the export departments of developed countries and many developing countries. Therefore, it should be clearly put forward that export production enterprises should first realize self-financing, and on this basis, foreign trade enterprises should gradually realize self-financing
The third stage of reform (1991-1993)-cancel subsidies and assume sole responsibility for profits and losses. At the end of 1990, the State Council199/KLOC-0 decided to further deepen the reform of the foreign trade system. This reform has made China's foreign trade management system more suitable for the development of socialist market economy. Foreign trade enterprises are responsible for their own profits and losses, which frees the export development from the constraints of the national financial situation. Independent operation of enterprises is conducive to the long-term planning of export production development, so as to ensure the stable development of national foreign trade exports. This reform has enabled China's foreign trade system to make a breakthrough in self-financing, making it easier to participate in international division of labor and exchange, which meets the requirements of international trade norms. The main contents are as follows: 1. On the basis of the pilot reform, the reform of self-financing for foreign trade enterprises' exports was comprehensively implemented, the state's financial subsidies for foreign trade exports were abolished, and the contracting system of total exports, export proceeds and foreign exchange turned over was retained, but it was changed to the annual contracting target. Two, change the way of foreign exchange retention, from the past to the implementation of different proportions of retention by region to the implementation of a unified proportion of retention by large categories of goods. Three. We adjusted the scope of mandatory plans, guiding plans and market regulation for export commodities, and narrowed the scope of commodities subject to quota and license management. Starting from 1992, the mandatory import and export plan was basically cancelled, and the guiding total plan was implemented, allowing the vast majority of import and export commodities to be liberalized, and a few commodities were subject to open and transparent quota license management. Fourth, reform the tariff system. From 65438+65438+1 in 0992 to1in October, the import tariff rate of 225 items was actively reduced; From199265438+Feb. 3 1, the import tariff rate of 337 1 items will be reduced, which will reduce the total tariff level by 7.3 percentage points; 1993 65438+February 3 1 Reduce the import tariff rate of 2998 items, with an average reduction of 8.8%. Five, deepen the reform of the internal mechanism of foreign trade enterprises, and promote the transformation of the operating mechanism of foreign trade enterprises. At the same time, promote the industrialization, collectivization and internationalization of foreign trade enterprises, and form a number of export-oriented enterprise groups with international competitiveness, which are dominated by foreign trade and combined with industry and trade.
This round of foreign trade system reform focuses on the reform of micro-management, which is not only an objective requirement for establishing a modern enterprise system, but also a continuation of the road of decentralization in the previous stage. Among a series of reform measures, two are particularly important: first, cancel the state's financial subsidies for exports, and according to the international practice, foreign trade enterprises are responsible for their own profits and losses; The second is to change the practice of different proportion retention according to local conditions and implement a unified proportion retention system according to different commodity categories. Since then, China's foreign trade management has basically broken the "big pot" system, and the operating mechanism of foreign trade enterprises has undergone fundamental changes.
The fourth stage of reform (1994-2002)-exchange rate adjustment and macro-control. The main contents are as follows: First, reform the foreign exchange management system and give play to the important role of exchange rate in regulating foreign trade. Second, improve the macro-management of foreign trade by economic and legal means. Strengthen and improve management by objectives, that is, policies, plans, supervision and management, and bring foreign trade management into the legal track. Strengthen the coordination service mechanism of foreign trade management. Third, accelerate the transformation of the operating mechanism of foreign trade enterprises. State-owned foreign trade enterprises focus on maintaining and increasing the value of state-owned assets and scientific management, and actively promote the modern enterprise system, comprehensive trading companies, the establishment of supervisory committees, internal employee stock ownership and other pilot projects to implement the asset management responsibility system. Fourth, maintain the unity of the national foreign trade policy and increase transparency. This is a macro requirement for establishing a unified national market, and it is also one of the norms of international trade. Five, strengthen the coordination service mechanism of foreign trade management. Give further play to the coordinating service function of intermediary institutions such as the Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export, and gradually establish and improve the mechanism of lawyers, accounting and auditing firms and consulting services in the foreign trade industry; Increase penalties for illegal operators.
Scholar Tong Jiadong pointed out that from a macro perspective, although the reform of state-owned foreign trade enterprises has made some achievements and the administrative intervention of the government is gradually weakening, the status of state-owned foreign trade as a government policy tool or a government vassal still exists. When we emphasize strengthening the vitality of foreign trade enterprises to be responsible for their own profits and losses, we deny the autonomy of enterprises and the operating mechanism of enterprises with the goal of maximizing. Therefore, the reform of foreign trade enterprises still needs two aspects of reform until today. On the one hand, we must resolutely cut off the relationship between the government and enterprises, so that foreign trade enterprises can operate independently. On the other hand, we should continue to promote the shareholding system reform of foreign trade enterprises, and through the shareholding system reform, enterprises can truly form an internal supervision mechanism, an incentive mechanism and a strong sense of competition.
Changes of China's foreign trade policy and management system after China's entry into WTO. After China joined the WTO, the foreign trade environment of China has undergone profound changes. On the one hand, China should fulfill its commitment to join the WTO, reduce tariff and non-tariff measures, and adjust the existing foreign trade system to adapt it to the multilateral rules of the WTO; On the other hand, in view of the impact brought by China's entry into WTO, we should do a good job in coping with it, seize opportunities, meet challenges, expand exports, reasonably control imports, and ensure the smooth operation of foreign trade. The principle of import control is to reasonably control imports by means permitted by the WTO, strive to achieve the balance of total import and export, and at the same time pay attention to optimizing the structure of imported goods to better meet the needs of national economic development. The main points are as follows: first, according to WTO rules, improve the specific system of import management, including quotas, licenses, tariff quotas, state-owned trade and quality, safety and hygiene standards, so as to provide a fundamental basis for import supervision; Second, establish and improve fair trade management systems such as anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard measures, speed up the construction of import early warning system, and take timely measures to prevent excessive imports from causing serious damage to domestic industries; Third, do a good job in the import control of some important industrial and agricultural products, strengthen tracking, timely feedback, and make overall plans. In optimizing the import structure, we should do the following: first, seize the opportunity of international industrial restructuring, especially the adjustment of high-tech industries such as IT, accelerate the introduction of high-tech and key equipment, and promote the upgrading of China's industrial structure; Second, give priority to ensuring the import of raw materials that are in short supply in China to meet domestic production needs, and at the same time take measures to solve the trade imbalance between China and some developing countries; Third, appropriately increase the import of goods that will not impact domestic industries and enterprises, but will help increase customs tax revenue. Fourthly, the imported products with repeated construction and serious impact on the domestic market should be reasonably supervised by means allowed by the WTO to reduce the adverse effects.
The Foreign Trade Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), which came into effect on July 1 2004, further deepened the reform of the foreign trade system, correspondingly improved the export tax rebate management measures, and provided a strong institutional guarantee for the comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of China's foreign trade. Specifically, it includes: unifying the foreign trade access standards of all kinds of enterprises, so that all kinds of enterprises can enjoy the right to operate independently and compete on an equal footing; Actively guide the development of foreign trade agency system; Establish foreign trade integrity management and exit mechanism; Improve the system of import and export chambers of commerce. After 2007, China entered the post-WTO transition period. In addition to continuing to deepen the reform of foreign-related economic system, promoting the facilitation of trade and investment, liberalizing the right to operate foreign trade, substantially reducing tariffs, canceling non-tariff measures such as import quotas and licenses, and constantly expanding the opening up of financial, commercial, telecommunications and other service industries. The quality of utilizing foreign capital has been further improved. The mode of opening to the outside world is also gradually based on the whole world, realizing the best combination of global resources, and putting the most suitable work in the most suitable place at the most suitable cost, not only in manufacturing, but also in economic, social, cultural and other aspects of industrial development, and finally maximizing benefits. The implementation of the "going out" strategy has taken solid steps, and the mutually beneficial foreign economic cooperation has achieved remarkable results.
conclusion
Economic system reform and economic development strategy update are mutually causal. Generally speaking, economic system is the means and economic development is the goal. The former serves the latter, obeys the latter and is decided by the latter. In other words, what kind of economic development strategy you choose requires what kind of economic system, and the two must be unified. Otherwise, the economic system will affect economic development and it will be difficult to achieve strategic goals. However, the economic system has a negative impact on the economic development strategy and can restrict economic development. Under the condition that the economic development strategy has not changed, the economic system can be appropriately changed. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the priority development strategy of China's heavy industry decided that only the planned economy system could be adopted. As a part of economic development strategy-foreign trade development strategy (mainly import substitution)-can only be a highly centralized control system. This import substitution strategy is not conducive to the rapid development of China's economy in terms of utilizing comparative advantages to develop the national economy, overcoming excessive trade barriers and developing productivity. After the reform and opening up, with the establishment of China's key coordinated economic development strategy and the transformation of planned economy system to socialist market economy system, the traditional import substitution strategy must be adjusted appropriately.
Through the analysis of the reform of foreign trade system in the past 30 years, we can see the great progress of China's foreign trade from the degree of marketization of foreign trade system and the degree of integration with international rules. First, foreign trade operators have formed a multi-level and diversified market economy management pattern; Second, foreign-funded enterprises started from scratch. After entering the 1990s, with the rapid increase of foreign investment in China, a large number of foreign-invested enterprises entered the operating period, and foreign investment became the main force of foreign trade growth, especially after entering the 2 1 03.627 billion century. By 2006, the total import and export volume of foreign-invested enterprises was US$ 65.438+03.627 billion. Accounting for 58.9% of the country's total import and export. The third is to gradually break the tariff system under the planned economy and gradually establish a new tariff system that adapts to international trade practices. Tax items and tax rates are closer to the world international trade norms, and the pace of docking with the international market is accelerated. Fourth, the foreign exchange management system has changed from planned management to a single managed floating exchange rate system based on market supply and demand, especially the reform measures such as the merger of 1994 exchange rate and conditional convertibility of RMB under current account, the abolition of foreign exchange retention system and the task of handing over foreign exchange, and the establishment of foreign exchange trading market among designated foreign exchange banks have promoted the process of foreign trade reform. Judging from the reforms that have been carried out in China, a foreign trade system that is regulated by the market and conforms to international standards and free trade will eventually take shape.
There is no doubt that the direction of China's foreign trade management system reform is still consistent with the direction of the whole economic system reform, that is, to establish and improve the socialist market economic system. Practice has proved that the socialist market economic system is the most effective economic system in economic development. It is a historical necessity that the future reform of China's foreign trade management system should develop along the direction of socialist market economy.