To thoroughly implement the instructions on maintaining stable fundamentals of foreign trade and to carry out the decisions and deployment made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on the coordinated epidemic prevention and control as well as the socio-economic development, the following policy measures are formulated and approved by Shanghai Municipal People's Government to give full play to the role of foreign trade companies in epidemic prevention and control as well as reduce the impact of the epidemic on production and operation of foreign trade companies: 

I. The mechanism for import of key medical supplies will be optimized. 

Dedicated efforts are made to secure fast customs clearance and to improve on the green access for import of medical supplies needed in the fight against COVID 19, which include drugs, disinfectants, protective products, medical equipment, and etc. Lists of importers and medical supplies used in the epidemic prevention and control are formed. Medical supplies directly used in the epidemic prevention and control as well as imported under the instruction of the health authority are exempted from import duty; previous levies will be refunded before September 30th of 2020 upon application of importers. In the post-epidemic period, the residual imported medical supplies, if any, will be included in municipal-level strategic reserve system following established procedures. The imported products of designated categories and volume for civilian use in the epidemic prevention and control, with expressed and verified difficulty in sales on the part of importers, will be taken over as municipal-level strategic commodity reserves following the prescribed procedures. (Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, Shanghai Medical Products Administration, Shanghai Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, Shanghai Municipal Finance Bureau, Shanghai Development and Reform Commission, Shanghai Administration of Work Safety, Shanghai Customs District P.R. China)

II. Full support will be given to companies' resumption of work and operation. 

Shanghai will scale up its efforts to improve labor availability for companies' resumption of operation and will actively coordinate supplies for companies to combat the epidemic. Priority support will be given to port-related and container truck transportation companies for their restoration of operation in a bid to maintain supply chain security for key enterprises. Companies facing difficulties in production and operation due to the epidemic are encouraged to negotiate with staffs to stabilize employment by adopting salary adjustment, working in shifts, shortened work hours and other approaches. Companies are encouraged to organize employees to return to Shanghai by inter-provincial chartered bus. (Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission)

III. Stronger financing support will be given to foreign trade companies.

Financial institutions in Shanghai are encouraged to provide greater support to foreign trade companies playing key roles in the epidemic prevention and control by offering concessional loans to satisfy their reasonable capital needs based on credit risk aversion as well as comprehensive assessment on factors such as enterprises' funding gap and market supply and demand. For the hard-hit foreign trade companies with prospects of returning to profitable operations, support will be given by adjusting debt repayment schedule, extending repayment period and renewing loans without the repayment of principal among others. The Shanghai Branch of China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation is supported to enhance cooperation with banks and Shanghai Policy Financing Guarantee Funds on policy-backed financing, giving full play to the role of risk diversification and credit enhancement in promoting trade financing. And the policy-backed financing will benefit a wider audience by lifting the previous annual export volume ceiling from USD 5 million to USD 30 million. Shanghai Policy Financing Guarantee Funds will better support foreign trade enterprises that have played key roles in guaranteeing medical supplies and have suffered huge impact by the epidemic. During the epidemic period, the rate of fees for financing guarantee for new loan applications is to be reduced to 0.5% per year and the re-guarantee fee will be cut by half. (The People's Bank of China Shanghai Head Office, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission Shanghai Bureau, Shanghai Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau, Shanghai Municipal Finance Bureau, Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation Shanghai Branch)

IV. Regulatory services for customs clearance will be optimized. 

A "green access" for customs clearance will be put in place to facilitate the imports of materials, parts, equipment and other products urgently needed by enterprises in their resumption of work and production. In terms of the delayed delivery of goods, refund requests or return of goods incurred by the epidemic, relevant authorities should provide convenience for enterprises in a timely manner. The alteration and withdrawal of customs declaration manifests caused by the epidemic will not be recorded as an error. When processing formalities for affairs such as centralized customs declaration for multiple batches of goods, consolidated sell back, deep processing transit and bonded exhibition and transaction, enterprises will see the time limit for declaration extended by an extra month. During the epidemic prevention and control period in Shanghai, processing trade companies (including the companies in the customs special supervision areas) that experience expiration of their manual of processing trade (or account book is overdue for verification) due to the delay in work resumption incurred by the epidemic can go through formalities and submit related materials afterwards. The customs declaration for deep processing transit, tax payment of goods for domestic sales and other businesses under the processing trade manual (account book), if exceeding the prescribed time limit, can be postponed. (Shanghai Customs District P.R. China)

V. Credit insurance will play a bigger role. 

Efforts will be made to improve cooperation mechanism among governments, credit insurance institutions and business associations. The Shanghai branch of China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation will enhance its underwriting capacity and provide, to the best of its capabilities, insurance for orders that are real as and for companies with potential. Insurance for the advance payment of imported supplies should be in place with relaxed insurance conditions. The service charge of credit reporting for foreign suppliers will be exempted and a catalog of overseas suppliers and report of bill of lading should be offered free of charge. Priority will be given to the claims made by hard-hit companies. Under the premise of trade authenticity, primary attention will be given to the verification of the trade background and liability level. Terms of claim settlement will be reasonably eased with prioritized initiation of loss assessment and compensation appraisal procedures. The allocation of policy resources will further pivot to key enterprises. Pre-shipment export credit insurance service will be promoted to safeguard companies against the risk of contract cancellation initiated by buyers referencing epidemic influence. (China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation Shanghai Branch)