With the steady improvement of living standards, people are increasingly demanding high-quality durable consumer goods.
The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed: "We must take meeting the people’s growing needs for a better life as the starting point and the end result, constantly transform the development achievements into the quality of life, and constantly enhance the people’s sense of acquisition, happiness and security."
The Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in of Consumer Goods issued by the State Council proposes "four major actions: equipment renewal, trade-in of consumer goods, recycling and standard upgrading" and "strengthening the upgrading of product technical standards". The "Action Plan for Promoting Trade-in of Consumer Goods" issued by the Ministry of Commerce and other 14 departments proposes to "increase financial and monetary policy support".
How to adhere to high standards and implement trade-in of consumer goods? How to optimize relevant policies and promote the trade-in of the old for the new? The reporter interviewed relevant departments, enterprises and experts.
Guide by standards and standardize the process requirements of trade-in
"This summer, I plan to change a smart air conditioner at home, which can be controlled remotely. I can receive 500 yuan subsidies by participating in trade-in." Sun Guixiang, a resident of Chaoyang District, Beijing, said.
Key standards such as General Technical Requirements for Smart Household Appliances have promoted the technological transformation of smart household appliance enterprises in the domestic market. In 2023, the penetration rate of smart home appliances in China reached 47%, higher than the global average, among which the penetration rate of smart air conditioners reached 64.3%.
"This large-scale equipment update and consumer goods trade-in action, standards play a basic and leading role." The relevant person in charge of the standard technology management department of the State Administration of Market Supervision said.
At present, there are still some blocking points in the trade-in process of consumer goods. For example, the recycling of waste digital products has data security risks, and consumers are worried about the disclosure of personal information such as photos, address books and bank cards.
Seven departments, including the General Administration of Market Supervision, jointly issued the Action Plan for Upgrading Traction Equipment and Trade-in of Consumer Goods by Standards, which promoted the completion of the preparation and revision of 294 key national standards this year and next, including the Technical Requirements for Information Clearing of Second-hand Electronic Products, providing strong support for equipment updating and trade-in of consumer goods.
Qu Zongfeng, vice president of China Household Electrical Appliances Research Institute, said: "Standards play a key role in quantifying the key indicators of product trade-in, unifying the requirements of trade-in process and standardizing the behavior of trade-in subjects, which is conducive to solving the blocking points in the trade-in process and is also the technical basis for formulating trade-in incentive policies."
On the supply side, standards drive investment in technological transformation.
"The Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau is taking the lead in organizing the formulation of the standards for students’ lunch break chairs, which will stipulate the safety performance indicators, quality indicators, recycling, etc. of the relevant lunch break desks and chairs, so that students can sleep and take a lunch break more comfortably and safely." Zhang Kehe, Director of Standardization Department of Zhejiang Market Supervision Bureau, said that after the introduction of standards, it will drive related production enterprises to carry out technological transformation.
By upgrading the standards of technology, energy consumption and emission, we can promote the upgrading of enterprise equipment, technology and technology, eliminate backward production capacity and products, and promote large-scale equipment renewal. The General Administration of Market Supervision will speed up the upgrading of energy consumption emission technical standards, compile and revise 113 relevant national standards, continue to lead the equipment update, and help the proportion of advanced production capacity continue to increase.
On the demand side, standards promote consumption upgrading.
By building a safe bottom line through standards and improving the quality level, we can continuously expand the supply of high-quality products, accelerate the upgrading of traditional consumption, lead the creation of new consumption, and continuously stimulate the potential of domestic demand by upgrading and expanding consumption.
The General Administration of Market Supervision will strengthen the improvement of product quality and safety standards, accelerate the iterative upgrading of standards such as electric vehicles, intelligent networked vehicles and after-sales service of automobiles, and revise 115 relevant national standards to promote the trade-in of consumer goods and meet the needs of people’s better life.
At the recycling end, the standard is smoothly recycled.
In the field of circular economy, filling the short board of standards can guide manufacturers to pay attention to the easy recycling and renewability of products in the design process, standardize product recycling, disassembly and reuse, and open up the blocking point of resource recycling. For example, China has formulated and issued more than 40 design standards for easy recycling and easy recycling of household appliances, as well as standards for recycling, dismantling and reuse, which has played an important role in promoting the green consumption cycle of household appliances. From 2012 to 2022, China has standardized and dismantled more than 700 million refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines and televisions.
According to the relevant person in charge of the General Administration of Market Supervision, the next step will be to increase the supply of recycling standards, speed up the improvement of recycling, sorting, dismantling and recycling standards for key products, and revise 66 relevant national standards to promote the smooth industrial cycle and help resource utilization form a closed loop.
Policy guarantee, increase financial and tax support
"The new car purchase scheme is really affordable. The old car is converted, plus subsidies from the state and manufacturers and preferential auto finance services. I only need to pay a down payment of more than 4,000 yuan to drive the new car home. The monthly payment for a five-year car loan only needs more than 1,000 yuan, which is really not a big burden. " On May 10th, Mr. Cai, a citizen of Xiamen, Fujian, signed a car purchase contract at the dealer store of SAIC-GM-Wuling.
Since the introduction of the trade-in policy, SAIC-GM Finance has launched a special trade-in financial scheme for different models to fully meet customers’ vehicle replacement needs. From January to May this year, the Wuling channel of SAIC-GM Finance completed more than 10,000 additional purchase and repurchase contracts, up more than 3% year-on-year.
Finance has stepped up efforts to support the trade-in of consumer goods. In September, 2023, the State Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau issued the Notice on Financial Support for Restoring and Expanding Consumption, which increased financial support for the production, service and consumption of green smart home appliances around the aspects of "old-for-new", green smart home appliances going to the countryside and increasing the supply of home appliances. In March this year, the People’s Bank of China and the General Administration of Financial Supervision jointly issued a policy to clarify that financial institutions can independently determine the down payment ratio of passenger car loans and reduce the cost of car purchase for consumers. The General Administration of Financial Supervision is working hard to study measures related to the standardization and upgrading of new energy auto insurance, further optimize the pricing mechanism, and promote the insurance industry to better serve the development of new energy auto industry.
"Banking and insurance financial institutions optimize financial services, increase support for consumption such as automobiles and green smart home appliances, and help residents to upgrade their consumption." The person in charge of the relevant departments of the General Administration of Financial Supervision introduced that it will continue to guide financial institutions to actively support reasonable consumer demand, improve the construction of consumer credit system, enhance the innovation ability of financial products and services, increase support for key areas and new consumption, optimize the consumer financial environment, and provide more high-quality financial services for residents’ consumption.
Urumqi Huizhitong Electronics Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in the recycling and dismantling of waste electrical and electronic products, and approves the disposal of about 500,000 sets of waste electrical and electronic products every year. Ge Shufang, the company’s financial controller, said: "At present, there are about 200 suppliers who sell used household appliances to the company, and they are basically natural persons at the waste purchase point. Previously, it was time-consuming and laborious to call them one by one to issue invoices after recycling used household appliances every month. Now there is a’ reverse invoicing’ policy, which not only reduces the workload, but also facilitates waste purchasers. "
The Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in of Consumer Goods requires "promoting the practice of’ reverse invoicing’ by resource recycling enterprises to sellers of scrapped products from natural persons". On April 25th, State Taxation Administration of The People’s Republic of China issued an announcement to clarify the specific measures and operation methods of "reverse invoicing" for resource recycling enterprises. Enterprises can apply for invoicing qualification only by submitting application forms and qualification certificates, and the procedures are simple and convenient.
In order to support automobile consumption, seven departments, including the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance, recently jointly issued the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Automobile Trade-in Subsidies, clarifying the subsidy standards for automobile trade-in. Consumers can submit application materials and check the progress in real time through the webpage and applet of the car trade-in platform. At present, the first batch of subsidies for car trade-in have been distributed one after another.
Various localities have successively issued relevant rules to support the trade-in of consumer goods. Zhejiang supports the trade-in of green smart home appliances, requiring individual consumers to buy eligible home appliances and enjoy a reduction subsidy of about 10% of the transaction price after all discounts are removed; Tianjin supports home appliance sales enterprises to cooperate with production enterprises and recycling enterprises to carry out trade-in promotion activities; Hunan will build 100 green, intelligent and aging-resistant model rooms in the whole province, and promote the model rooms to enter shopping malls and communities … The old-for-new support policy will gradually come into effect, which will promote the upgrading of residents’ consumption and continuously release their consumption potential.
Coordinate and mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties to form a joint force.
"To promote large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods, we must stimulate the power of the market, mobilize the enthusiasm of production enterprises, e-commerce platforms and industry associations, and form a joint force." Pan Helin, a member of the Expert Committee on Information and Communication Economy of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said.
Promoting the trade-in of consumer goods requires enterprises to provide consumers with good quality and affordable goods. Red Star Macalline Home Furnishing Group recently started the trade-in of household appliances and furniture in many places across the country. Zhu Jiagui, CEO of the Group, said that after the introduction of the policy, the industry standards are clearer and the supporting policies are more perfect, which will help promote the green development of the furniture and household appliances industry.
Qu Zongfeng suggested that after the release of the new standard, enterprises need to increase investment in optimizing management schemes, iterating product types, updating production equipment and eliminating backward production capacity, so as to realize technological innovation and upgrading and maintain their market competitiveness.
Platform enterprises directly connect consumers with the market, which has natural advantages and plays an important role in promoting the trade-in of consumer goods. The Office of the Leading Group for Platform Economy of Zhejiang Province encourages and supports platform enterprises to launch such measures as "trade-in for trade-in", creating a one-stop replacement service link, improving the convenient and efficient replacement experience, and strictly controlling the quality of trade-in products.
Pan Helin believes that compared with traditional offline physical retail, e-commerce is more efficient in docking supply and demand, and the implementation of trade-in through e-commerce channels can be effective faster.
Trade associations should not only be good government assistants, but also good corporate helpers to help household appliances update their consumption cycle from all aspects of production, circulation and recycling. On April 14th, China Household Electrical Appliances Association, china national household electric appliances commercial association, China Household Electrical Appliances Service and Maintenance Association and China Materials Recycling Association jointly issued the initiative of "promoting the replacement of old household appliances and promoting the consumption cycle of renewal".
Qu Zongfeng said: "In those areas where standards are relatively lacking, it is suggested to play the role of scientific research and technology institutions and industry associations, and fill the shortcomings as soon as possible by formulating group standards and other more flexible and efficient ways. It is also necessary to strengthen the promotion of standards, enhance the publicity and implementation of standards, and truly achieve policy acceptance, industry recognition, corporate identity and user awareness. "
The relevant person in charge of the General Administration of Market Supervision said that it will focus on the high-quality development of the industry and the needs of people’s better life, select key standards to speed up the revision work around the key areas of equipment renewal, trade-in of consumer goods and recycling, and form a joint force with the policies of various departments to support large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods. (Reporter Lin Lizhen, Ouyang Jie)
