The deep impact of the epidemic on the foreign trade industry

What will be the short-term impact of the epidemic on China's foreign trade in 2021?

In the first two months of this year, my country's foreign trade imports and exports dropped significantly. According to China Customs data, from January to February 2021, the total value of my country's import and export of goods trade was 4.12 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9.6%. Among them, exports were 2.04 trillion yuan, down 15.9%; imports were 2.08 trillion yuan, down 2.4%. The relevant person in charge of the General Administration of Customs said that in terms of freight volume, the customs-supervised inbound and outbound freight volume in the first two months was 700 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 2.8%, of which exports were 190 million tons, a decrease of 3.7%, and imports were 510 million tons, an increase of 5.5%. %. In the first two months, export prices fell by 1.3% year-on-year, while import prices rose by 0.1% year-on-year, indicating that my country's economy and trade have strong resilience and inertia.

1. The epidemic has affected the purchasing psychology of overseas buyers in the short term.

   Although the National Health Organization has highly praised and affirmed the Chinese government's epidemic prevention and control, objectively speaking, the current overseas purchasing and retail consumption, purchasing mentality, purchasing psychology, and purchasing behavior are indeed affected and fluctuated to a certain extent.
   

   The specific performance is that the refund rate of cross-border e-commerce retail platforms continues to increase, and the reason is the outbreak of the epidemic in China. Although the World Health Organization also emphasized that the epidemic will not spread through international logistics, the psychology of consumers and buyers is often irrational. Also because of the continuation of the epidemic, some B2B customers are also conservative and cautious and wait-and-see attitude towards purchasing Chinese goods.

   
   

2. Marketing channels of foreign trade companies are blocked

   Originally, after the Spring Festival, foreign trade companies will soon usher in the exhibition season, including important exhibitions such as the China Canton Fair and the China Fair, and many domestic trade companies will also participate in various domestic exhibitions. Exhibition marketing will be seriously hindered.
   

   After the "SARS" in 2003, the transaction data of the Canton Fair dropped from 16.8 billion yuan in the 2002 Spring Fair to 3.312 billion yuan. The decline in data caused by the epidemic is shocking!

   
   

3. The impact of export shipping

   The entire foreign trade industry is still worried about the epidemic being classified as PHEIC (Public Health Emergency of International Concern). The most direct manifestation is the impact on recent international shipping.

   At present, some countries around the world have implemented very strict commodity inspection and quarantine on merchant ships, crew members and goods from China. If a crew member of a Chinese merchant ship has a fever, China's maritime cargo ships will be treated specially, or even directly canceled from entering the port.

   
   

4. The threshold for export commodity testing will continue to increase

   As the epidemic continues, many countries continue to raise the quarantine threshold for goods exported from China, which increases trade risks and further increases the export cost of China's foreign trade. For some small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises, this will be a business operation. stress and distress. Bad overseas buyers will also use commodity inspection and quarantine measures to seize Chinese goods and maliciously reduce prices.