Export Products Can Not Be Standardized.

In China, more than 30% of export enterprises are affected by foreign technical trade measures to varying degrees.

But neither government nor enterprise should regard these measures as barriers, but as consumers.

To study, and to study the rising standards of consumer market in developed countries, let

Not only "going out" but also "coming back".

In the June column, I mentioned the three major trends in the world in 2015. The first trend is that the world is becoming more rugged and the national boundaries are increasingly prominent.

An important reason for increasing national boundaries is the trade barriers stacked up by various countries with technical trade measures.

China, which has been in the world market for decades, is facing the problem of more and more expensive labor force, poor innovation ability and weak world demand. They become the second ceiling of China's manufacturing industry with the long standing trade barriers.

As early as the 2006 Detroit International Motor Show, the Geely Group vowed to break into the US market at a price of no more than 10 thousand dollars per vehicle; brilliance group also announced in the same year that it had to kill the US market before 2009, and the result was no news.

South China automobile, Dongfeng, the Great Wall, BYD and Chery have also issued similar rhetoric, but they are blocked by the threshold of us safety and environmental emission standards.

The original intention of technical trade measures is reasonable. For example, the agreement on technical barriers to trade stipulates that "any country may take the necessary measures to protect the environment within the scope it considers appropriate, as long as these measures do not consider that any unreasonable discrimination between countries with equal conditions will be considered, or that it will become a means of concealing restrictions on international trade."

For example, the agreement on the implementation of sanitary and phytosanitary measures stipulates: "the contracting parties shall have the right to adopt sanitary and phytosanitary measures for the protection of the life or health of human beings, animals or plants."

What is more noteworthy is that as long as the parties confirm that their measures have a scientific basis and protection level is appropriate, they can "implement or maintain measures that are higher than international standards, guidelines and recommendations".

Obviously, the space is very large.

Therefore, technical standards are used by many countries to implement trade protection. They often appear in the face of non-tariff measures such as technical trade measures.

Such measures are nominally reasonable and covert in form, but the technical complexity is a great obstacle to exports and imports of products.

In China, more than 30% of export enterprises are affected by foreign technical trade measures to varying degrees.

American Enterprises: brand is the standard

Is there any time when American companies encounter technical barriers to trade? Of course, there are many.

How do they cope? What are their experiences and lessons for Chinese enterprises?

Faced with this situation, American enterprises usually adopt two kinds of attitudes.

First, American companies are good at using the law to protect their rights. If financial resources are heavy and reasonable, they will take legal weapons and fight against each other, and the government will often come out to help.

Americans are famous for their lawsuits, and American companies are no exception.

The two is that American companies are good at taking the lead. Rather than fighting a trade war, it is better to study the market demand and consumer habits of the other side, not only to meet the standards of the other side, but also to study products that are more popular with consumers than local companies.

Small products like 3M masks and earplugs have done their best.

In the final analysis, international trade itself is "strong dragon to fight the snake".

American cars, planes, apple mobile phones, coffee and even fried chicken wings can be seen in China without people. It is easy to see that they are very effective.

On the contrary, Chinese enterprises are not aware of the foreign regulations and market habits. Two, they do not understand, but do not understand them.

The biggest difference between China and the United States is not whether there are laws or regulations. The core difference lies in the sense of law-abiding.

But the rise and fall of an enterprise does not depend entirely on whether these standards are followed. These are the most basic standards to be followed in business, such as lead content and special requirements for toys.

Just like driving at work or riding a bicycle to stop a green light at a red light, it is no good not to comply, but compliance does not mean success.

American enterprises basically rely on brands to make certificates, set standards with brands, and win by innovation and differentiation.

In a sense, subversion of industry standards and innovation is the standard enterprise behavior of American enterprises.

It can also be said that the most "standard" American product standard is to constantly subvert standards.

What Apple Corp subverts is the standard. This is the great thing that China needs to learn.

As for safety and health regulations, in the United States and even in different states and states, they are too complicated to be cocoon and bind themselves.

The author appreciates China's national standard system, but the key is to carry out it.

Export products can not be standardized.

In recent years, doubts about the national standards of certain products in China are lower than international standards and different internal and external standards.

But in my opinion, the standardization of export products is like raising the tofu with a horse tail.

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First of all, China's export enterprises are developed on the basis of "three to one supplement", that is, "two heads are outside the country, and the big ones are coming out."

One of the "three comes" is "to sample", the so-called "to sample" is the standard.

In the past 30 years, the author has been working in the clothing, footwear industry, department stores, office supplies and handcraft chain industries in the United States for private brand, product development, design and supply. There are numerous manufacturing enterprises that come into contact with one another, that is, standards come from customers.

For example, the order from golden baby to Chinese enterprises not only specifies suppliers of fabrics and accessories, but also stipulates the needle used for sewing machines and stitches per inch.

Secondly, the standards of customers themselves are different: no matter in the face of the different standards in the European and American markets and the Japanese market, the product standards from the American apparel industry are also different.

Now the survival rule of enterprises is "differentiation", and the competitiveness of enterprises is innovation.

Without these two core competitiveness, enterprises even have problems in their survival, let alone the everlasting industry and excellence to excellence.

The connotation of "differentiation" and innovation is innovation and subversion.

Therefore, any attempt to "standardize" is often like a puppy biting its tail, always spinning around and busy.

Third, there are endless changes in consumer protection laws. In the United States, the protection of consumers and environment in California is more stringent than in other states.

When the state government legislations, we do retail business.

Golden baby has a small group. Every day, the job is to collect all kinds of statutes of the state government and the federal government.

Compared with such a commercial atmosphere, Chinese export enterprises are making "standardization" instead of using horse tail to make tofu. China has made some "GB", which is better than no standard, but these standards are mainly for domestic market, while overseas customers do not quite agree with these standards. At least, the author has done almost 30 years of Sino US trade and has never used "GB".

But from another point of view, the situation is different.

At the moment, golden baby is planning to enter the Chinese children's clothing market. At least in terms of safety testing, it is precisely China's "GB".

Recently, golden baby decided to move the production of the Chinese market from more than 10 countries in Southeast Asia to China, because the US standard is different from that of China.

After the shift of production to China, although the labor force is slightly more expensive, the benefits of local production in accordance with the local rule offsets the expensive side effects of labor.

Therefore, China's "national standard" has played the role of trade protection virtually.

Of course, on the basis of "national standard", we will also increase other essential golden babe "standards", which is the brand's DNA.

Setting standards from emerging markets

It is impossible for customers to set standards and not execute them.

But in the process of passive implementation, Chinese enterprises are becoming more and more serious and mature.

The export manufacturing industry has made amazing progress. The gold content of "made in China" as a brand is also gradually increasing. This is very encouraging.

The reason for this is passive execution, because retailers are checking the products of Chinese manufacturing enterprises from raw materials, testing, packaging, manufacturing and finished products inspection.

So, in a sense, brand is a standard, brand can set its own standard.

So who will check and approve? Consumers are naturally.

They are the most authoritative testing organs and decision makers who issue business permits, so they are respected as "God".

The majority of Chinese enterprises, especially small and medium-sized export enterprises, do not have brand names, so they are passively carrying out customer standards and have to be checked.

"Made in China" although gold content is increasing, but the good and bad is not good, a rat feces bad soup a thing happens from time to time.

Under such circumstances, technical trade measures can easily become the trade barriers of importing countries.

Compared with mature markets in Europe and America, emerging markets complain more about China's fake and inferior products.

This is because the European and American market has a sound regulatory body and a strong consumer protection consciousness, and the emerging market is not. Therefore, China's export products here are like "a big knife in a wild land". Many Chinese enterprises are more likely to show their bad faith habits, and fake and inferior products are rampant.

This makes the "made in China" brand constantly tainted, and even the image of the Chinese has been distorted.

To set standards for exporting products, we should start with emerging markets and regard them as the minimum standards of "made in China". If they are below this standard, they can not go abroad, and we can not use the "made in China" logo.

The weakness of China's business ecosystem:

Lack of integrity

As the saying goes, "the more you lack, the more you want to show."

This sentence is quite appropriate for the certification of Chinese export enterprises.

China has many certifications, and many international certification agencies are especially fond of China. What is unheard of abroad is popular in China.

First, China has always had the habit of speaking face, and has a "code of conduct that does not speak well". So entering the door of enterprises always saw a large number of certification certificates on the wall. Even the factory inspection certificates issued by retailers were mounted on the wall.

Domestic entrepreneurs often talk incessantly and tell me and my colleagues that they have passed the certification similar to IS9002.

To tell you the truth, we never see these useless certificates. Suppliers in Italy, Germany, the United States and Japan never show us any certificates.

Another strange phenomenon is that the photo of leader inspection has become a kind of authentication.

The author does not want to negate the authentication completely, but the less the authentication is, the better the enterprise should spend on the market research and product development.

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Ironically, even certification is frauds, which leads to a crisis of integrity.

I heard that the American Consulate intends to expedite China's application for visas to visit the United States, but what is really binding them is counterfeit documents which are unavoidable.

The current Chinese social and business climate is unspoken rules, and corruption has penetrated into many aspects of business processes.

It is the fear of law that lacks credibility crisis.

Adam Smith has a famous saying: "what is lacking in the East is the system."

As far as China is concerned, this phrase is outdated, but it is not difficult to find that what China really lacks is the awe and implementation of the system.

In his book "civilization", Neil Ferguson pointed out: "democracy is the top stone of a building, and the foundation of the building is the rule of law. More accurately, democracy is the protection of the sanctity of personal freedom through the constitutional government of representative system and the protection of private property rights."

History has proved repeatedly that whenever we get closer to and respect for such a game rule based on the rule of law, the more we can bring into full play the potential and characteristics of our nation.

Today, the Chinese people are industrious and rich, Chinese enterprises are strong and prosperous, and they have gone out.

But the source is clean and clean, the last Hong of Ben Sheng.

To enter the world

In order to really cross the border and cross trade barriers and integrate into the world system, we need a seamless legal environment for Chinese enterprises.

Internationalization starts from the Chinese market

Then, how should the Chinese government guide enterprises to cope with technical barriers to trade? What aspects can they learn from countries such as the United States? First of all, we should not consider technical trade measures as barriers, but as consumers' markets.

Chinese society has already gone through the period of adequate food and clothing, so we should take this opportunity to change "let me do" as "I want to do".

In the study of the constantly improving standards of consumer market in developed countries, bring more things back.

China has had enough of all the hardships that GDP sees, and needs to go beyond sexual development rather than the footsteps of developed countries.

Setting the standards higher is a good thing to benefit the country and the world in the long run.

Therefore, the greatest help of the Chinese government to enterprises should be to provide advisory services and guidance, focusing on the understanding of the existing laws and regulations in the world market and the consumer market, so that the products made in China will not only "go out" but also "walk back".

More research on the market, more commitment, less complaints, as far as possible to avoid two injuries were defeated.

In the past 30 years of reform and opening up, China's export manufacturing has made great contributions to the economic rise, and the "made in China" brand has some gold content.

But this success is somewhat "accidental", and the contingency of the ants has not yet triggered a qualitative change in the real sense.

Most of the past standards were fixed by customers, and we had no right to speak at all.

We still have a long way to go to make the world standard with the brand like Europe, America, Japan and even Korean enterprises.

The second is to develop the supermarket of their own backyard.

Do not use the concept of "domestic sales" to make the Chinese market an international market.

Improve benchmarking, internationalization starts from the Chinese market.

Never rush to gain instant benefit.

Don't deceive consumers.

According to the author's experience, those who sell domestically are often more able to understand the requirements of overseas buyers.

Finally, what China needs most is a long-term policy based on law to escort it from a big manufacturing country to a manufacturing power.

Without strong manufacturing industry, industry "4" and "made in China 2025" and "Internet +" are all fashionable expressions.

Export manufacturing is a labor-intensive industry. China's industry has become a national competitive advantage. According to the author's view and even the only competitive national competitive advantage, we must take good care of it and further develop it, rather than always suppress and exclude it with the policy of changing policies.

China's exports flourish and its country prospers.

Vice versa.