Certificate of origin of free trade agreement is a certificate for export cargo to enjoy tariff reduction at relevant import areas. It is called ‘paper gold’ in international trade. On 1 January 2022, RCEP agreement took effect officially.

In 2022, Nantong issued more than 4300 RCEP certificates of origin for more than 1200 enterprises. The number of certificates issued is ranked the 1st in Jiangsu. The amount is over 1.6 billion U.S. dollars. They helped enterprises enjoy over 18 million U.S dollars benefit.

As a famous ‘hometown of textile’ in China, in the RCEP certificates of origin in Nantong, those for textile raw materials and textile products account for over 90%.

RUGAO TAIERJIA IMP & EXP TRADE CO.,LTD mainly works on clothing export, and has large demand on RCEP certificates. ‘The export which is relevant with RCEP agreement, is about 25 million U.S. dollars per year.’ Wang Xiaobing, relevant person in charge said that, ‘RCEP agreement helped clients reduce purchasing cost effectively, helped us maintain customer source and expand new market. We are more confident in improving and expanding the enterprise in the future.’

At the same time, some enterprises had a ‘order recovery’. Nantong Dongrun Fashion Co., Ltd. has built plants in Cambodia. After RCEP took effect, the orders of domestic manufacture were increased, tariff relief is an important reason. Relevant person in charge said that manufacture in Southeast Asia did not have many advantages in terms of cost compared with manufacture in our state, and the manufacture period and transport time in China were shorter. About 10% of the orders were changed to be produced in China.

By Liu Lu