China trade council says overseas trade exhibitions recovering

BEIJING - China's trade council said overseas economic and trade exhibition projects showed a trend of recovery, and the majority of such projects received better-than-expected results.

Since the beginning of this year, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) has greenlighted the first batch of 519 applications to hold economic and trade exhibitions abroad, the CCPIT spokesperson Wang Linjie told a press conference Wednesday.

The overseas exhibition projects, involving 50 exhibition organizers nationwide, will hold exhibitions in 47 major trade partners and emerging market countries such as the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Thailand, and Brazil.

The CCPIT will soon start to review the second batch of exhibition projects this year, according to the spokesperson.

Given the difficulties faced by enterprises in going abroad to participate in exhibitions, such as rising costs, visa application difficulties, and increased uncertainties in some countries, the CCPIT will take the initiative to communicate and coordinate with relevant ministries and commissions, release risk warning messages timely, and hold pre-exhibition meetings for projects heading for specific countries to help enterprises reduce risks and uncertainties.

In February this year, China's national trade promotion system issued a total of 578 Admission Temporaire -- Temporary Admission (ATA) Carnets, an increase of 260.76 percent year-on-year, involving about 157 million yuan ($22.83 million) of cargos in value, up 195.53 percent year-on-year.

The ATA Carnet is an international customs and temporary export-import document.

The CCPIT will continue to promote the implementation of free trade agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, said the spokesperson.