On December 30, China and the EU jointly announced the completion of the China-EU investment agreement negotiations as scheduled
The China-EU investment agreement negotiations were launched in 2013. After 7 years, a total of 35 rounds of negotiations were held. Especially since this year, the two sides have overcome many difficulties caused by the COVID-19 epidemic and accelerated the negotiation process. A total of 10 rounds of negotiations were held during the year, and the negotiations were finally concluded successfully as scheduled within the year. The China-EU Investment Agreement benchmarks against high-level international economic and trade rules and focuses on institutional openness. It is a balanced, high-level, mutually beneficial and win-win agreement.
High-level market access commitments will bring more investment opportunities to companies on both sides. High-level fair competition rules will provide a better business environment for bilateral investment. In terms of market access, the agreement adopts a pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list model. For the first time, China has made commitments in the form of a negative list in all industries, including service and non-service industries, to achieve full integration with the foreign investment negative list management system established by the Foreign Investment Law. The EU also promised us a higher level of market access in the agreement. In addition, regarding market access restrictions that do not discriminate against foreign investment but have a significant impact on the establishment and operation of enterprises, both parties will also commit to not imposing restrictions on the number of enterprises, output, turnover, directors and senior executives, local R&D, export performance, There are restrictions on the establishment of headquarters, etc., and investment-related foreign exchange transfers and the entry and stay of personnel are allowed. In terms of fair competition rules, the two parties are based on creating a legal business environment and have reached consensus on issues closely related to corporate operations such as state-owned enterprises, subsidy transparency, technology transfer, standard setting, administrative law enforcement, and financial supervision.
“Allowing investment-related foreign exchange transfers and the entry and stay of personnel”, from an operational perspective, may indicate that local currency settlement can be used in the future. This is a clever move for both parties to de-“dollarize”! For those textile companies that do not have US dollars but have Euros, if there is an opportunity to become bigger and stronger in the textile and apparel field, it is an opportunity. For example, European brands want to enter the Chinese market, and Chinese manufacturing companies want to operate brands in Europe. European brands Set up R&D centers directly in China, etc.
National Health Commission: 4.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in my country and are safe and sound
December 31, State Council The joint prevention and control mechanism held a press conference. Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission and head of the vaccine research and development team of the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism Scientific Research Group, introduced at the meeting that in order to prevent the outbreak of the epidemic in winter and spring, and to effectively protect cold chain logistics personnel, customs border inspection personnel, For medical disease control personnel, public transportation personnel, and some groups with relatively high risk of infection, such as farmers’ markets and seafood markets, China officially launched the vaccination work for key groups on December 15. “In the past half month, the total number of key groups across the country has More than 3 million doses of vaccination have been administered, plus the previous 1.5 million doses of emergency vaccination, which fully proves that our vaccine is safe.”
Some foreign trade companies have so many orders that they cannot finish them and even refuse them
On the one hand, in order to avoid the traditional Spring Festival holiday, domestic and foreign customers will place orders 1.5 times in advance. -2 months. This year, due to the combined impact of the epidemic and market conditions, the market has entered the Spring Festival vacuum period earlier than in previous years, which has also prompted this wave of orders to be placed intensively. Downstream traders and garment factories have purchased in advance. As of now, many foreign trade companies have overwhelming orders. All major foreign trade companies are recruiting temporary workers and working overtime to complete orders.
According to calculations by the Ministry of Commerce, my country’s total import and export of goods trade is expected to reach about 32 trillion yuan in 2020, and the actual use of foreign investment throughout the year will exceed 140 billion U.S. dollars. The total import and export volume, international market share, and attraction Foreign investment has reached record highs. Now, on average, 60 million yuan of goods enter and leave the country every minute.
There are still several difficulties for textile companies to fully recover.
Rising raw materials: Not losing money has become the biggest luxury
While profits have been compressed to the extreme, raw material prices have begun to rise. The scale goes up. First came nylon, spandex, and finally polyester filament. The price of gray fabrics also increased to varying degrees driven by raw materials. Trader Manager Yang complained that there was no profit from taking orders now, and the price of raw materials has risen again, making the cost more expensive. Several orders were even at a loss, but now it is enough to finish a few orders at a loss. The greatest wish.
Freight transportation is difficult: Containers have to be “lottered” to try for luck
The goods are made and they want to be shipped out But it is a troublesome thing. The resurgence of the epidemic abroad has greatly affected local production, and the demand for Chinese manufacturing has only increased. In addition, there is a shortage of overseas manpower to unload goods, resulting in a large number of container shipments.Pressure in European and American ports. Containers “go and never come back”, which also makes many foreign trade bosses watch helplessly as a large number of orders and produced products just cannot be shipped out. This situation has lasted for half a year. For this reason, exporters’ advance booking time has been continuously extended, from one week in advance to one month in advance. Sometimes they even need to lottery to try their luck. At the beginning of the new year, the situation of “hard to find a box” has not improved, and has even intensified.
Uncertain expectations: Inventory may affect next year’s textile and apparel market
Due to the outbreak of the epidemic again during the Christmas season in Europe and the United States in 2020, people’s travel is restricted. It will inevitably lead to slow sales in the clothing market. This part of the inventory of clothing will undoubtedly appear in the autumn and winter market next year, which will certainly lead to a reduction in fabric orders for autumn and winter clothing next year.
On the other hand, the current textile and apparel market is generally optimistic about the market in the second half of next year. In the first half of next year, due to the backlog of clothing inventory in this spring and summer, it is basically not optimistic, and orders will be large. The odds won’t improve either. Once the market loses its optimism about the second half of next year, the lack of orders will last throughout 2021. The vast majority of textile companies are already struggling to support themselves this year. If the market does not improve next year, many textile companies may go bankrupt and leave.
Before the global epidemic is brought under control, there are still great uncertainties in the textile market. Especially the recent worsening and loss of control of the epidemic in Europe and the United States has made the textile market in 2021 even more confusing. </p
