Releasing the potential and vitality of consumption, gaining strategic initiative through high-level openness - Interview with Wang Wen Tao, Party Secretary and Minister of Commerce

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 15th: Releasing the Potential and Vitality of Consumption, Winning the Strategic Initiative with High-level Opening - Interview with Wang Wentao, Secretary of the Party Group and Minister of the Ministry of Commerce Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Xiyao The "14th Five-Year Plan" proposal made deployments on "building a strong domestic market" and "expanding high-level opening to the outside world," proposing specific measures such as "vigorously boosting consumption," "actively expanding independent opening," and "promoting trade innovation and development." The recently held Central Economic Work Conference also made deployments around building a strong domestic market and adhering to expanding opening. As the new beginning of the "14th Five-Year Plan," how will China further activate the main engine of consumption? How to promote trade innovation and development? What new measures are there for expanding high-level opening? Xinhua News Agency interviewed Wang Wentao, Secretary of the Party Group and Minister of Commerce. Cultivate service consumption, optimize trade-ins, activate the sinking market Question: The "14th Five-Year Plan" proposal put forward "vigorously boosting consumption" and "expanding the supply of high-quality consumer goods and services." How will the Ministry of Commerce implement this? Where is the focus? By 2025, China's consumption market is heading towards new paths and maintaining steady growth. The total retail sales of consumer goods in the first 11 months increased by 4.0%, and it is expected to exceed 50 trillion yuan for the first time throughout the year. The growth rate of service retail sales is 1.3 percentage points higher than that of commodity retail sales during the same period, reflecting strong vitality and potential. In terms of consumption volume, China has become the world's largest market in multiple important sectors and categories. This super large-scale market is an important foundation for promoting high-quality development and is also the confidence to deal with risks and challenges. By 2026, the Ministry of Commerce will adhere to the combination of benefiting people's livelihood and promoting consumption closely, adhere to the dual-drive of "policies and activities," release the potential and vitality of service consumption, commodity consumption, and sinking market consumption, and focus on the "three focuses." Focus on key and potential areas, cultivate new growth points for service consumption. As China's economy develops and people's living standards improve, the structure of residents' consumption is shifting towards a balance of commodity consumption and service consumption. We have identified a number of service consumption areas with new formats, rapid growth rates, and strong driving effects, including transportation, household services, online audio-visual, living accommodation, and other large-scale fields, as well as promising potential areas such as performances, sports events, games, emotional and experiential services. We will push forward the improvement of supporting policies, remove unreasonable restrictive measures, and actively cultivate new growth points for service consumption. We will also organize events such as the "Service Consumption Season" and "Chinese Food Expo," guiding localities to create characteristic service consumption brands in sports, performing arts, tourism, and snow and ice activities. Focus on new tracks and offline entities, optimize the implementation of the trade-in policy for consumer goods. The trade-in policy for consumer goods in 2026 will support green and intelligent consumer goods with greater intensity. For example, the trade-in requirement for home appliances is a first-class energy efficiency or water efficiency standard, and subsidies for purchasing new products will be extended to smart watches, smart bracelets, smart glasses, etc. We understand that the "new" in trade-ins refers not only to new products but also to guiding and supporting policies to provide a broader market for new products and technologies, striving to open up new tracks. We will also actively support offline retail entities, encourage offline stores to leverage their comparative advantages, create diversified consumption scenarios, enhance the consumer experience, and promote balanced development of online and offline commerce. Focus on the "three regions" and stimulate the consumption potential of the sinking market. The sinking market represented by third- and fourth-tier cities and county towns carries 70% of China's population and 60% of social retail sales, making it one of the fastest-growing and most potential regions for consumption growth. Based on factors such as population size and economic scale, we have categorized these regions into core, growth, and basic regions. We will insist on making policies in line with the trend, implement differentiated measures, establish a diversified layout centered on cities, focused on county towns, and based on towns and villages, and activate this incremental "blue ocean" by improving circulation facilities, optimizing market environment, deepening business format integration, and enriching consumption scenarios. At the same time, we will continue to organize the "Buy in China" series of activities and build the "Buy in China" brand. With a 9-day long holiday during this year's Spring Festival, the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments and localities, will hold the "Happy Shopping New Year" special event, which is a major event in this year's "Buy in China" series of activities, focusing on "eating, living, traveling, shopping, and entertainment," creating a festive consumer feast for all. Focus on "diversity," "balance," and "trade in services" to promote trade innovation and development Question: The "14th Five-Year Plan" proposal puts forward "promoting trade innovation and development." How do you view the current situation of foreign trade development? How will the Ministry of Commerce promote win-win cooperation in the trade sector? Currently, the global economic development lacks momentum, geopolitical risks linger, global trade growth slows down, and the World Trade Organization has lowered its forecast for global trade growth to 0.5% in 2026. Foreign trade development faces many challenges and uncertainties. In the next step, we will comprehensively promote the "three major pillars" of building a strong trade country, namely, goods trade, services trade, and digital trade, implement various policies well, and fully stabilize foreign trade. Here, three key words are discussed. First is "diversification," which means consolidating and expanding diversified markets. We will organize important exhibitions such as the Canton Fair to attract more overseas buyers to attend and purchase, and increase support for enterprises to participate in overseas exhibitions. We will optimize public services, continue to compile and issue the "Country Trading Guide" and trade promotion information. We will guide the healthy and standardized development of new foreign trade formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce. China has concluded 23 free trade agreements with 30 countries and regions. We will support and guide enterprises to make good use of these agreements to expand trade. Second is "balance," which means promoting balanced trade development. During the 2025 8th China International Import Expo, we launched the "Sharing a Big Market Exporting to China" series of activities. We will continue to expand the influence of the "Exporting to China" brand, hold a series of docking activities, actively expand imports through exhibition linkage, targeted procurement, etc. We will make full use of various trade promotion platforms such as the CIIE, play the role of national demonstration zones for promoting imports and facilitating trade, enhance the level of facilitation of import trade, optimize the source and structure of import goods better, and better meet the needs of industrial development and people's quality of life. Third is "trade in services," which means vigorously developing trade in services. We will improve the negative list management system for cross-border trade in services, and orderly relax market access in the service sector. According to the principle of "one strategy for one industry," we will push forward the introduction of a batch of more substantive policy measures, accelerate the development of productive service exports, encourage professional service institutions to enhance their international service capabilities, expand the export of emerging services such as research and development, design, consulting, testing, maintenance, etc., based on innovative advantages in artificial intelligence, digital economy, biomedicine, etc., and cultivate new growth points for foreign trade. Promoting high-level opening will organize two major events in the economic and trade fields Question: The Central Economic Work Conference proposed "adhering to opening up to the outside world" and "steadily advancing system-based opening." What new measures will the Ministry of Commerce take to further promote high-level opening? Adhering to open cooperation and mutual benefit is a necessary requirement for China's modernization with Chinese characteristics. Expanding high-level opening is not only conducive to winning the strategic initiative in fierce international competition but also to promoting global openness through its own opening. In response to the deployment of the Central Economic Work Conference, the Ministry of Commerce will focus on the following three aspects to implement them well. Actively expand independent opening. We will orderly expand independent opening in service areas such as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, wholly foreign-owned hospitals, etc., and accelerate comprehensive trials and demonstrations of opening up the service industry. Expand unilateral opening fields and regions, promote the implementation of the zero-tariff measures on all taxable items for all diplomatic countries in Africa. We will promote the effective implementation of the policies for the operation of the closed-loop operation policy of the Hainan Free Trade Port, further improve the level of liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, optimize the layout scope of the free trade pilot zone, support the free trade pilot zone to carry out more intensive institutional opening trials around market access, environmental standards, government procurement, etc., and better play the demonstrative and leading role of the comprehensive reform and opening pilot platform. Promote rational and orderly cross-border layout of industrial chains and supply chains. We will deepen cooperation in the "Belt and Road" in trade and commerce, promote the integration and connectivity of production and supply chains, encourage cooperation in green development, digital economy, green minerals, new infrastructure, new energy, and other fields, and promote the establishment of equitable, inclusive, and constructive global industrial and supply chain partnership. We will enhance the platform functions of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, expand overseas marketing networks through overseas investment, explore international markets, achieve mutual promotion of investment and trade, and promote the integrated development of trade and investment. We will optimize the overseas comprehensive service system, improve the national-level overseas comprehensive service platform, promote the formation of an ecological service for overseas service with central-local linkage, regional coordination, and resource aggregation. Constructively participate in global economic governance. In 2026, there will be two major events in the economic and trade fields. One is the "China Year" of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), where we will deeply participate in APEC economic and trade cooperation and hold a series of meetings in the economic and trade fields. The other is the 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization. We will fully and deeply participate in the reform of the World Trade Organization, jointly with all parties, support multilateralism and free trade, and promote the conference to achieve practical results. We will also sign trade and investment agreements with more willing countries and regions in a flexible and pragmatic manner. We will strengthen economic and trade cooperation under mechanisms such as BRICS, G20, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, promoting mutual benefit and win-win results. This article is reprinted from "Xinhuanet Co., Ltd." GMTEight editor: Xu Wenqiang.