China's State Council announces guidelines to stabilise trade

China’s State Council recently called for efforts to ensure domestic supplies of commodities as part of guidelines to stabilise exports and imports as a counter-cyclical buffer against uncertainty clouding the trade landscape. The cabinet released measures to prop up micro, small and medium enterprises and revised the list of retail imports via e-commerce.

The guidelines proposed an acceleration of export tax rebates and the improvement of export credit insurance services to better protect smaller trade firms against the cancellation of orders before shipments.

Presently, the country's exports and imports are facing increased uncertainty, instability and imbalance, and the fundamentals of its trade operations remain unsound, the State Council said in an announcement.