BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s retail giants have launched initiatives in the past few days aimed at helping Chinese exporters pivot to the domestic market, as a U.S.-China trade war intensifies.
Beijing increased its tariffs on U.S. imports on Friday to 125%, hitting back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to hike duties on Chinese goods to 145%.
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com said on Friday it will launch a 200 billion yuan ($27.35 billion) fund to help the country’s exporters to sell their products domestically over the next year.
JD.com said it would send its employees to Chinese companies involved in foreign trade, directly purchase their “high-quality products” and set up a special area on its e-commerce platform to sell these products and direct traffic and marketing support to this area.
Separately on Friday, supermarket chain Freshippo, owned by JD.com rival Alibaba and known as Hema in Chinese, said it had opened a fast-track path for export companies to explore the domestic market.
The support programmes for Chinese exporters could help them to recoup some of their losses from reduced sales overseas by quickly starting or increasing domestic sales, though they will face intense competition in a slowing economy.
Like JD.com, Freshippo will set up a special zone on its platform where only products from these companies will be sold. It said it will also make it easier for exporters to get on its platform by simplifying registration and would allow these exporters to make use of the company’s warehouse network.
Earlier in the week, two of China’s largest supermarket operators, CR Vanguard and Yonghui Superstores, announced similar support measures for Chinese exporters.
“Amid the shifting global economic landscape and intensifying international trade wars, countless Chinese supply chain enterprises are filled with both unwillingness to yield and eager aspiration,” Yonghui said in a statement on Monday.
“When your exports face roadblocks and you seek to shift to domestic sales, we will open a ‘green channel’ to get your products on our shelves within 15 days.”
($1 = 7.3045 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; additional reporting by Shi Bu; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Susan Fenton and David Goodman)
