World Factory and World Market China International Import Expo

Since 2017, with the rise of trade unilateralism, intensified investment protection, and geopolitical tensions, economic globalization has encountered setbacks. If demand "liquidity" is not injected through imports in a timely manner, the driving force of international trade growth will gradually weaken, and the world economy will once again fall into recession. In such an urgent situation, the convening of the world's first import themed expo, the China International Import Expo, reflects the broad responsibility of a major country. With practical actions, China further declares to the world: "The door of China's opening up to the outside world will not be closed, it will only open wider and wider.

Since the reform and opening up, as a "world factory", relying on its own comparative advantages to integrate into the global production system, it has created a "miracle of China's exports" and promoted the rapid development of the Chinese economy. However, the "in for out" model and its accompanying policy measures have a significant inhibitory effect on the rapid growth of imports. Because the "import for export" model has led to a long-term concentration of imports on mineral products and other products. At the same time, the 'in for out' model sacrifices the benefits that consumers may receive from product diversification.

China cannot only be a "world factory", but also a "world market". At present, Chinese residents whose living standards are constantly improving have reached a point where they cannot be confined to their own products and services. This means that expanding imports and promoting balanced development of imports and exports is the top priority for adjusting traditional trade models.

Looking back at China International Import Expo, it can be seen that on the one hand, traditional imports of raw materials and capital goods are still retained; On the other hand, new products represented by high-end medical and health products such as high-quality agricultural products, food and advanced medical devices, and new anti-cancer drugs, which serve consumers, greatly enrich domestic consumption choices and meet the personalized and diversified consumption needs of the people. From this perspective, this year's China International Import Expo is undoubtedly a catalyst for accelerating China's transition to the "world market".

The theme of this China International Import Expo is "New Era, Shared Future". The purpose of holding the China International Import Expo is to enable the world to better share the achievements of China's development. China International Import Expo not only increases China's imports, but also naturally increases the income of the importing countries. The increase in income from importing source countries will further increase the demand for Chinese export products. That is to say, China International Import Expo is accelerating China's transition to the "world market" while also strengthening China's position as the "factory of the world", which is a virtuous cycle.

Expanding imports can fill China's existing three major gaps and accelerate China's progress towards high-quality development. Firstly, there is a huge gap in the demand for high-quality foreign products among the Chinese people due to information asymmetry and available supply. Although more and more people go abroad every year, their proportion in the total demand population is still very small. China International Import Expo has created opportunities for face-to-face communication between exhibitors and potential customers, creating an important platform for supply and demand docking to expand imports, enabling more accurate and effective transmission of consumer demand to the supply side.

Secondly, there is still a significant gap between the technological capabilities of Chinese enterprises to provide high-quality products and the advanced level of foreign countries. In the past, we improved our technical capabilities by "learning from exports", with a focus on imitation. Although the advantage of importing high-quality products, introducing advanced technology, promoting the upgrading of traditional industries, and enhancing industrial competition through the method of "learning from imports" is still imitation; But through the "import competition" approach, it can bring a sense of crisis to enterprises, which is commonly known as the "catfish effect", forcing domestic enterprises to transform and upgrade, setting standards and benchmarks for learning from abroad, and thus promoting the improvement of China's supply side quality and structure.

Once again, there is still a significant gap in the actual level of trade facilitation in China compared to developed countries. China International Import Expo has made beneficial explorations to enhance China's trade facilitation and is an important experimental field for improving import practices. At present, relevant departments such as China Customs and Inspection and Quarantine have introduced special measures; The handling and response to various new situations during the exhibition will also provide useful references for promoting imports and facilitation in the future. The summary and promotion of these measures will undoubtedly better promote enterprises' foreign trade activities.

China has been the second largest importer of goods in global trade for 9 consecutive years. Expanding imports, as an important part of promoting a new round of opening up to the outside world, will release numerous major measures taken by the Chinese government to open up its market to the world. This aligns with the strong desire of the international community to expand the Chinese market and take the "fast train" of China's development, as well as the development law of Chinese enterprises relying on internal demand for innovation and upgrading, and is more in line with China's.