New export rules trialled in Guangzhou

A trading model for regulating and facilitating export deals valued at $150,000 or less has been launched in Guangzhou.

The trial, called the market purchasing trade, gives companies registered in Huadu district in Guangzhou a tax exemption if the export deal is worth $150,000 or less.

One-stop services, including quarantine and customs services, are also available for such trades.

Guangzhou is home to a large number of wholesale markets selling various commodities, with many foreign purchasers buying relatively small batches of different goods.

Previously, export deals worth $50,000 or less were categorized as tourist purchases. They amounted to $20 billion in Guangzhou last year.

Under the tourist purchases category, deals are conducted in cash, making the money flow unclear and commodities hard to trace, according to Guangzhou's Commission of Commerce.

With the limit lifted to $150,000 in the new model, the practice of exporting as tourist purchases will be phased out.

The Huadu district government hopes more than $10 billion of exports will go through under the trial model this year, district chief Ye Zhiliang said.

The new trade model is of high importance to Guangdong province, exports from which accounted for 27.3 percent of the national total last year, Li Yiwei, deputy secretary-general of Guangdong, said.

Guangzhou is one of five cities in the third round to trial the new model.