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News source: 2 1 century jewelry network release time: 2005- 12-30 9:54:44
On February 20th, 65438, the People's Bank of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Central Bank") published the draft of the Measures for the Administration of Import and Export of Gold Products (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft for Comment"). According to the regulations, enterprises with a registered capital of more than 30 million can apply for the import and export of gold products.
"This is a prelude to the further opening of the gold market," said Hou Huimin, vice president of the China Gold Association. This will enable more gold traders to integrate into the international market and further integrate the domestic market with the international market. But at the same time, some observers have noticed that the central bank will implement "one case, one batch" for import and export applications, which is stricter than the previous examination and approval system. There are indications that behind the new policy of gold import and export, the subtle changes in the views of the regulatory authorities on the attributes of gold are showing.
◆ Only "gold products"
It is noteworthy that the "Opinion Draft" limits its scope of application to "gold products". According to its regulations, gold products refer to gold jewelry, utensils and industrial gold products with gold content above 90% (including 90%).
It is doubtful whether the above gold products contain raw material gold. The reporter recently called the central bank's currency, gold and silver bureau in charge of this matter. The relevant person in charge said that it is still in the stage of soliciting opinions and it is not convenient for interviews.
Many experts in the industry have been consulted, and they think that from the provisions of the opinion draft, "gold products" should not include raw material gold. Therefore, the standard gold bars traded on the Shanghai Gold Exchange are not included.
According to Yang Yijun, chief gold analyst of Gaosaier Gold and Silver Co., Ltd., internationally, free import and export is not limited to gold products, but also includes raw material gold. From this perspective, "the central bank's thinking is gradual."
Shanghai Gold Exchange was established in June 2002. As an important step in the marketization of China's gold industry since 1993, the Institute adopted the market-oriented distribution mode of "centralized bidding" for raw materials, which changed the "unified purchase and allocation" mode that had been implemented for many years before.
The so-called "unified purchase and distribution" refers to the unified purchase and distribution of gold by the central bank on behalf of the country. That is, all the gold produced by gold-producing enterprises must be sold to the central bank, and the gold needed by gold-using enterprises must be applied to the central bank, which will distribute it uniformly according to the plan. The formal establishment of this system can be traced back to 1983, the first gold legislation in New China, the Regulations on the Administration of Gold and Silver (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations).
As the inevitable logic of "unified purchase and distribution", matters related to gold import and export are also stipulated in the regulations to be handled by the central bank. It includes both gold raw materials and gold products.
And clearly stipulates that the latter is "purchased by the central bank for foreign trade export". As an exception, in order to encourage the emerging gold jewelry processing industry at that time, the Regulations and subsequent supporting regulations allowed domestic processing trade enterprises to import gold raw materials from abroad and export their products. However, the whole process must be jointly supervised by the central bank and the customs. The procedures are as follows: the import of gold raw materials for processing trade needs to be filed with the local central bank, and the customs does not restrict it; Before processing trade gold products leave the factory, the local central bank must first check the weight of gold in the products, check the contracts, register them one by one, and issue export licenses for gold and silver products. Then it will be released by the customs with the license of the central bank, otherwise it will not be allowed to export.
1988 the central bank and the general administration of customs jointly issued a notice reiterating that "the import of gold and silver must be approved by the central bank." So far, the import and export control mode of gold and its products under the planned mode has basically taken shape. Manager Xu of Jiaxing Property Gold and Silver Co., Ltd., a gold and silver jewelry processing enterprise under the former Ministry of Light Industry, said that even gold raw materials imported from processing trade should actually be included in the scope of the central bank's planned indicators. "Therefore, the whole import and export of gold and its products is completely under the monitoring of the central bank, which is actually the only import and export entity." This pattern lasted at least until 2003. During this period, although the domestic gold market introduced the market mechanism several times, there was no fundamental change in import and export.
◆ Decentralization of gold import and export rights
In 2003, the four major state-owned commercial banks were approved by the central bank and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, and obtained the right to import and export gold. However, according to the Notice of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Relevant Issues Concerning the Verification of Gold Import and Export Receipts and Payments by Commercial Banks (Huifa [2003] No.93), the import and export rights must still be implemented by the central bank.
Previously, as early as 1998, in order to solve the shortage of gold raw materials in Shenzhen market, the Shenzhen branch of the central bank, with the approval of the head office, cooperated with Swiss banks on 1998 and began to explore ways to use gold resources in the international market to meet the gold demand in the domestic market.
The so-called consignment business means that foreign commercial banks deposit their gold in the vaults of domestic commercial banks, and domestic banks determine the corresponding prices according to China's gold management policies, international gold market prices and exchange rate changes, and sell gold to domestic gold jewelry processing and production enterprises. This is actually equivalent to gold imports.
According to the introduction of Yu Xuejun, then vice president of Shenzhen Branch of the Central Bank, in "200 1 Shenzhen Finance (Phase II)", gold consigned to China is not included in the planned target of the Central Bank, but is supplied on demand. This move greatly promoted the development of Shenzhen gold jewelry processing industry.
On June 5438- 10, 2002, due to the establishment of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, Shenzhen Branch of the Central Bank also stopped its consignment business for the sake of unified market. However, as Yu Xuejun said in the above article, "China will face the reality that gold consumption exceeds supply in the near and long term, and consignment business is necessary". Therefore, in 2003, this business was transferred to the four major commercial banks. At this point, foreign gold raw materials can land on the Shanghai Gold Exchange and enter the China market through the four major state-owned commercial banks.
A gold trader in a local branch of ICBC confirmed that in addition to buying gold in foreign markets through consignment business, gold can also be sold in the international market in reverse. In this way, the de facto right to import gold is at least formally distributed to the four major state-owned commercial banks.
At the same time, the import and export rights of gold products have also been allocated to six companies including China Jewelry Import and Export Corporation. The situation that the import and export rights of gold and its products are exclusively controlled by the central bank is gradually being broken.
The background that needs to be mentioned here is, first, the marketization process of the gold industry that started in the late 1990s, and second, the corresponding adjustment of the foreign trade system after China joined the WTO.
In September 2004, Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the Bank of China, said at an international precious metals forum in Shanghai that the gold market in China was still relatively closed. There are three main problems. The free import and export of gold is one of them. The central bank will study and solve these problems in the next step. Just five months before Zhou's speech, in April 2004, China amended People's Republic of China (PRC)'s Foreign Trade Law, which had been implemented for 10 years. The foreign trade monopoly pattern that has been implemented for many years has been broken. The new law stipulates that legal persons, other organizations or individuals who have gone through industrial and commercial registration or other practice procedures according to law can handle import and export business as long as they register with the competent foreign trade department or its entrusted agency, and the customs can handle the corresponding customs declaration and clearance procedures on the basis of their registration.
From this point of view, the opinion draft stipulates that more than 30 million enterprises can apply for the import and export business of gold products, "which is not only the embodiment of the central bank's idea of further opening up the gold market, but also the need to further implement the Foreign Trade Law." Zhang Bingnan, director of the Beijing Gold Economic Development Research Center, said. However, the opposite view also exists. Zhang Weixing, chief economic analyst of Yihe Finance, believes that there is no need to liberalize the import and export of gold at present, and it is meaningless to liberalize it.
He explained that, first, as the domestic gold price has been in line with the international gold price, as a gold product processing enterprise, there is no profit in importing and exporting gold raw materials. Enterprise funds can be purchased from the gold exchange. Second, the limitations of the current foreign exchange system.
Yu Xuejun also holds a similar view. He once publicly wrote that under the background of the opening of the gold market, the import and export management of gold should implement the policy of liberalizing imports and controlling exports. He explained that the management of gold export can avoid the back-and-forth trading of gold import and export and avoid the arbitrage of foreign exchange evasion.
If gold can be imported and exported freely, once the exchange rate changes or the market foreign exchange price difference is inconsistent, you can profit from the import and export of gold. Therefore, in the case that China's capital account is not freely convertible, the free export of gold should be restricted from the perspective of foreign exchange management. In fact, at present, the state-owned commercial banks that carry out gold import and export business on a commission basis, "every transaction is under the supervision of the safe", the above-mentioned ICBC gold trader told reporters.
According to its introduction, gold consignment is a model of physical delivery for every transaction. In terms of settlement, in China, commercial banks and gold jewelry enterprises settle in RMB, and in foreign countries, they settle in foreign exchange with banks that supply gold. "Every time you do a business, you have to go to the SAFE for approval." The above gold traders stressed. "Obviously, it is not realistic to let go of the import and export of gold." Zhang Bingnan said.
An insider also pointed out that although gold import and export can be handed over to general industrial enterprises in theory, it is actually mainly operated by commercial banks. This is because, compared with the general assets of industrial enterprises, commercial banks mainly operate as financial assets, and realize comprehensive income by carrying out various gold businesses, such as gold leasing, gold loans and investment in the international gold futures market.
New policy of gold import and export: saving money for the people to deal with the depreciation of the US dollar (2)
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News source: 2 1 century jewelry network release date: 2005-12-30 9: 55: 31
◆ "One thing, one batch"
In addition to the provisions applicable to "gold products", the "Opinion Draft" also clearly mentioned that the application will be subject to a "one-on-one batch" management model.
The "Opinion Draft" stipulates that all branches of the central bank are the accepting institutions and examining and approving institutions for applications, and they will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. If it meets the requirements, the examination and approval authorities will handle import and export licenses for it according to law. The applicant shall go through the import and export formalities with the customs within 15 working days with this certificate.
"According to the regulations, it seems that the central bank will regain its power again," Tamia Liu, secretary general of the gold investment analyst qualification review committee, told reporters on February 26th.
It is understood that the central bank and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued an announcement on February 22, 2003. The announcement stipulates that "from June 5438+1 October1day, 2004, the People's Bank of China will no longer examine and approve the import and export of gold and its products, and the customs will no longer examine and release them with the approval of the People's Bank of China. However, if gold and its products that cannot be exported are approved for domestic sales, they will still be subject to general trade import management, which will be examined and approved by the People's Bank of China, and the customs will go through the verification procedures in accordance with the relevant provisions on domestic sales. " The so-called processing trade mainly includes the processing of incoming materials and the processing of incoming materials, that is, the so-called "two ends are outside". Raw materials come from abroad, and finally processed gold products are also sold abroad. Domestic processing trade enterprises earn intermediate processing fees. In fact, for many years, the import and export of processing trade accounted for the absolute proportion of the import and export of gold products.
Take Guangdong Customs, with the largest import and export volume of gold products, as an example. Statistics from June 1 to June 1 1 this year show that Guangdong Port * * * imported 6.7 tons of gold products with a value of 53.62 million US dollars. Among them, the processing trade imported 6.6 tons of gold ornaments, accounting for 98.5% of the total import. In the same period, Guangdong Port exported gold products 136.9 tons, with a value of 134 billion US dollars. Among them, processing trade exported gold products 136.8 tons, accounting for 99.9% of the total export. Therefore, if the import and export business of gold products is implemented in batches, then in fact, the central bank intends to take back the power delegated in 2004.
According to informed sources, the main reason is that there are differences between local customs and local central banks in implementing the above announcement, and "the regulations have not been implemented".
An industry veteran also said that although domestic gold production has been increasing in the past two years, gold users have not obviously felt the increase in the amount of gold available on the exchange. In fact, a considerable amount of gold is being traded through private channels. Even a considerable part of it has flowed abroad in the form of processing trade. "Judging from Article 6 of the opinion draft, the intention of the central bank to focus on regulating exports is obvious." Wu Yan, managing director of Guangxi Guijingui Metal Co., Ltd. pointed out.
The last paragraph of Article 6 of the opinion draft stipulates that in addition to submitting a written application report, a business license of an enterprise as a legal person, a foreign trade operator registration form and an import and export contract for gold products, gold raw material sales invoices and value-added tax invoices must also be submitted for the export of gold products.
◆ Hide gold for the people?
While liberalizing import and export rights, the central bank strengthened supervision. In the eyes of some market analysts, the central bank is releasing the signal of "hiding money for the people".
It is understood that gold reserves, foreign exchange reserves and the share of special drawing rights in the International Monetary Fund constitute a country's international reserves and bear the function of resisting international financial risks.
According to public statistics, the average gold reserves of central banks in various countries are about 9% of the reserve assets, more than 25% in the European Union and about 60% in the United States. According to the data published on the website of the central bank at the end of June 2005, the proportion of gold reserves in China's total reserve assets is only about 1.2%, accounting for 600 tons.
With the recent high international gold price and the depreciation of the US dollar, especially after the reform of RMB exchange rate, the voice of increasing gold reserves in national reserve assets is gradually rising.
Zhang Weixing wrote that low gold reserves are not conducive to our response to the rapidly changing international financial turmoil, to the problems in the US economy and the dollar issue, and to China's position in the concept of regional currency in Asia.
The so-called "storing gold for the people" is to start private gold investment and consumption while increasing official reserves, which is put forward as a concept. The example often cited by supporters is the experience of Southeast Asian countries in resisting the financial crisis since 1997. At that time, the gold invested and stored by individual residents became an important reserve force for the country to deal with international political and economic risks.
According to the latest survey statistics, China's private gold reserves are about 4000 tons, plus the central reserve is about 600 tons, and the per capita consumption is only 0.35 grams. Although it is more than doubled from 0.16g in 2002, it is far below the international per capita annual consumption.
Many observers regard the liberalization of import and export rights of gold products as a signal that the country intends to "hide gold for the people". Opening more import and export channels can form a good interaction with policies to encourage gold consumption and investment, expand the scale of domestic gold consumption market and increase private gold reserves.
Previously, because only six approved enterprises had the right to import and export gold products, other enterprises could only entrust these six enterprises to import and export gold products, which invisibly increased the import cost of gold products, lacked channels in the international market, and was not conducive to making enterprises bigger and stronger.
In this opinion draft, the primary gold product is gold jewelry, which undoubtedly provides imagination for the above logic. But as Zhang Weixing's research pointed out, China's gold consumption structure is dominated by jewelry, and jewelry can't be regarded as a real investment.
According to Zhang's analysis, if investors really want to sell gold jewelry, they will lose at least 15%, because all kinds of high intermediate costs from gold to gold jewelry, such as processing fees, consumption taxes, gold loss, sales costs and jeweler's profits, are increasing.
"It is actually a devaluation to hide gold in the people through jewelry." Zhang Weixing said. He believes that the key to storing gold for the people is to broaden the current gold investment channels and attract more people to participate in gold investment.
One fact that cannot be ignored is that due to the lack of laws and regulations on gold investment, the channels for gold repurchase are still not smooth. According to the current folk gold theory, about 90% can't enter the circulation field.