China's entry into WTO will accelerate the transformation of China's economy into a global economy, and all walks of life in China will be under great pressure and impact. The urgent task is how to make self-adjustment, seize opportunities and take the initiative to meet challenges.
With the liberalization of China's foreign trade self-management right from examination and approval system to registration system, some small and medium-sized enterprises have embarked on the road of transnational operation to varying degrees. Many of them have some problems in international trade, such as information, capital, talents and technology. This paper analyzes the problems and countermeasures of how small and medium-sized enterprises explore the international market.
In addition, with the liberalization of China's foreign trade self-management right from examination and approval system to registration system, some small and medium-sized enterprises have embarked on the road of transnational operation to varying degrees. Through long-term contact with small and medium-sized enterprises in China, it is found that although the market environment and their own operating conditions are different, the practical problems that each enterprise needs to solve are generally similar. If these problems are not completely solved, it will be difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to go abroad and obtain more trade benefits. Therefore, how to overcome the existing problems and make international trade bigger and stronger has become an important issue for contemporary entrepreneurs.
1 main problems faced by small and medium-sized enterprises in developing international trade
1. 1 Insufficient understanding of the international trade environment.
The ancients said: Know yourself and know yourself, and you will be invincible. Analyzing the international marketing environment, understanding environmental threats and grasping market opportunities are the prerequisites for any enterprise to enter the international market and carry out international marketing activities. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises with limited resources and weak strength, it is more important.
A small and medium-sized enterprise engaged in international trade needs to have a detailed and comprehensive understanding of the business laws, trade policies, government intervention measures, economy and humanities of trading partner countries with the help of international business consulting companies. Then formulate the countermeasures of this enterprise, that is, develop when the market prospect is good, or give up voluntarily. Regrettably, many small and medium-sized enterprises in our country have not paid enough attention to the economic development policies of the current governments of trading partners and the attitude towards international trade in a certain industry, and there are countless examples of economic losses caused to the country and enterprises.
1.2 Poor channels of foreign trade information
At present, small and medium-sized enterprises in China have a single access to information, and their ability to actively and independently contact foreign customers is weak. They often passively wait for foreign businessmen or agents to contact them at home. Although most small and medium-sized enterprises have access to the Internet and theoretically have the conditions to expand their global business, there is still a big blind spot in how to quickly find the effective customer information they need in the vast network resources. Because enterprises have been engaged in international trade independently for a short time and lack of business information network resources, there is a certain blindness in their contact with foreign businessmen, so they cannot grasp each other's needs in time and make corresponding responses.
1.3 Enterprises have limited resources.
Many small and medium-sized enterprises are limited by their own resources and have certain limitations in engaging in international trade. Mainly reflected in: ① the enterprise management system is unreasonable. Most small and medium-sized enterprises are family-run private management mode, lacking scientific and standardized management system, inefficient market operation mechanism, ineffective production response to changes in the international market, and poor environmental risk tolerance; ② Lack of professional knowledge and experience in international trade laws and regulations and international trade practices. In the signing and performance of international trade contracts, not knowing how to use trade rules and international practices, how to choose and use international settlement methods, how to protect rights reasonably after trade disputes, and how to correctly choose dispute settlement channels will often lead to serious economic losses.
1.4 lack of professional foreign trade talents
For small and medium-sized enterprises, what is most lacking in international trade is talent. We know that to do a good job in foreign trade, we often need the cooperation of a large number of relevant personnel, such as customs declarers, translators, foreign trade negotiators, foreign-related laws, accountants and so on. These people are indispensable in foreign trade activities. But for most small and medium-sized enterprises, it is obviously not enough to equip the above personnel. After all, enterprises should consider the issue of operating costs. The reality is that enterprises hire people who are responsible for import and export trade. I hope you are both a translator and a customs broker, as well as a negotiator and legal expert. Of course, first of all, you must be an excellent marketing expert. However, a business activity cannot be completed by an individual alone, and it is impossible for a foreign trader to fully grasp the above business content. Therefore, due to insufficient preparation, some unforeseen situations often occur.
1.5 The export products have the same structure.
Most of the products exported by small and medium-sized enterprises in China are low-grade, single and similar products, and the quality is often unstable due to factors such as capital and technology. In addition, the export market is narrow. In order to promote their own products, enterprises depress their prices, resulting in confusion in the export market, and sometimes even dumping at low prices, which leads to anti-dumping investigations on China's export products abroad and further worsens the international market environment of China's export trade.
In addition, at present, some small and medium-sized enterprises pay little attention to intellectual property protection. When they see that the products produced by their peers are superior to their own in performance and style, they will immediately organize their efforts to learn, improve technology grafting, imitate production and processing, and have no consciousness of applying for patent protection in the market. As you can imagine, a finished product without patent right is likely to cause foreign businessmen to fall into legal disputes, and it is difficult for foreign businessmen to be interested. This is also an important reason why it is difficult for SMEs in China to enter the international market.
1.6 Lack of communication with major international customers.
Generally speaking, in countries with developed market economy, consumption is personalized and diversified. In the process of pursuing economies of scale, for various reasons, large enterprises are unwilling to take care of small-batch and multi-variety products or cannot get involved, leaving some market gaps, which provides basic conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises to implement transnational operations. For example, China's national handicrafts and China cuisine are world-renowned, and they have gone abroad and settled in the United States, Eastern Europe and other countries. But unfortunately, many small and medium-sized business owners want to get customers and don't want to invest too much. They always call for the return on capital, fearing that if they invest too much, they will not get a high return, which will affect their business development. For example, the company made a banner advertisement on Sohu. com for a week. When your customer browses your advertisement for the first time, he will naturally continue to look for other similar products for comparison. After this process, he decided to buy your product, but when he came to Sohu again, he found that your product was gone, because your advertising investment period had ended. You gave, but you got nothing. Instead, you promoted your competitors' products. Therefore, many enterprises waste money because of insufficient capital investment, and lose the opportunity to let customers know about the company. Of course, they also lack communication with major international customers.
2 Small and medium-sized enterprises to carry out international trade countermeasures and suggestions
2. 1 Establishing a global business development strategy is the first step for SMEs to go abroad.
Cultivating global thinking mode is the first step for small and medium-sized enterprises to go abroad. With the rapid development of information technology, the transnational operation of enterprises may not need a huge scale. As long as it has comparative advantages in some links of the value chain, it may become the basis for SMEs to participate in international competition. Small and medium-sized enterprises in China should gradually cultivate a global vision and way of thinking and seek greater development space for themselves.
2.2 Relying on the strength of professional import and export companies, we will carry out indirect export.
Although most small and medium-sized enterprises in China have obtained the right to operate foreign trade, it is difficult to carry out international trade because they are not familiar with the international market or cannot directly operate import and export business. They must seek help from large foreign trade enterprises, or join a large comprehensive trading company composed of several small and medium-sized enterprises led by foreign trade companies.
Professional foreign trade companies have accumulated rich international trade knowledge, experience and information in practice, and have the advantage of developing international trade business, which can provide funds, information and various commercial support for small and medium-sized enterprises and reduce trade risks; A large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in China can provide more business opportunities for professional foreign trade companies and form new business growth points. With the increasing international competition, only by establishing long-term cooperative relations can small and medium-sized enterprises and foreign trade companies establish their international competitive advantages.
2.3 With the help of overseas Chinese business network
The transnational business network of overseas Chinese is a unique resource for China to carry out transnational business. Small and medium-sized enterprises are small in scale and limited in funds, so many regions cannot set up overseas institutions. Even if there are overseas institutions, the shortage of manpower and poor quality of personnel are very prominent problems. Overseas Chinese organizations can not only make up for the shortage of overseas institutions of enterprises, but also give full play to the advantages of geographical advantages and extensive social relations to help small and medium-sized enterprises in China seize business opportunities and develop their markets smoothly.
2.4 the use of e-commerce to seek business opportunities
The rapid development of e-commerce has brought rare opportunities to the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises. Using e-commerce to carry out international trade activities has strong applicability to small and medium-sized enterprises: ① online trade can make small and medium-sized enterprises get equal opportunities to compete with large enterprises; (2) Small and medium-sized enterprises can reduce operating costs, reduce export trade links, save trading time and significantly improve operating efficiency; ③ Online trade can win more development space for small and medium-sized enterprises. However, when small and medium-sized enterprises carry out international trade activities through e-commerce, they should pay special attention to information and transaction security, and usually adopt encryption technology, digital name recognition and identity verification to strengthen their prevention. In addition, we should also pay attention to the legal issues of international trade through e-commerce. E-commerce is a new thing developed after 1990s, and the legal environment is still far from perfect. Many disputes in the field of e-commerce have no legal norms and are very difficult, especially in the field of international e-commerce. The norms of e-commerce vary from country to country. This requires small and medium-sized enterprises to pay special attention to the identification of buyers and sellers, the validity of electronic contracts and the identification of electronic evidence when developing international e-commerce.
Faced with the grim situation of economic globalization, internationalization of international competition and internationalization of domestic market, small and medium-sized enterprises should start with internal informationization of enterprises, make full use of existing network platforms, seize the development opportunities brought by WTO, and bravely enter the international market.
2.5 Government financing support is essential.
If small and medium-sized enterprises want to develop, they must transform the existing technology and equipment and achieve a higher level of management, so they urgently need social support, especially financial support. However, at present, the financial sector is afraid of taking risks, and most of them are indifferent to small and medium-sized enterprises. The lack of coordination between the government and other departments makes small and medium-sized enterprises feel difficult. The experience of western developed market economy countries in this regard is worth learning.
In order to solve the financing problem of small and medium-sized enterprises, Germany has established savings banks, Fuxing banks and credit banks. The government provides long-term loans to small and medium-sized enterprises with low-interest funds through these banks, and the loan interest is usually 2% ~ 2.5% lower than the market interest rate. Set up "SME Equipment Credit Bureau" to solve the capital needs of SMEs; There are five banks specializing in SME loans. Britain provides credit funds for small and medium-sized enterprises through government guarantees to banks, and reduces corporate tax from 30% to 20%. Therefore, we can also try to set up small and medium-sized banks to deal with the financing difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises, or adopt the model of European and American primary stock markets to open up local bond markets and open a convenient door for small and medium-sized enterprises to go public for financing.
Of course, in order to actively promote the international trade of small and medium-sized enterprises, China should establish a support system for the international operation of small and medium-sized enterprises composed of the central government, local governments and intermediary organizations as soon as possible. The state should establish policies and special budgets to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to carry out international operations, and at the same time improve the use of foreign trade development funds, funds for small and medium-sized enterprises to explore international markets and various policy funds; Local governments at all levels and foreign trade and economic management departments should optimize the trade environment, simplify various examination and approval procedures, and do a good job in coordinating and serving small and medium-sized enterprises in exploring the international market. Intermediary organizations should provide small and medium-sized enterprises with convenient access to effective information in various international markets, provide foreign trade business training and cultivate entrepreneurship.