How to do a good job in cotton purchasing and sales? Eight departments actively push forward reform
On September 25, eight departments - the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives and the Agricultural Development Bank of China - jointly held a national teleconference on cotton work to analyze the cotton production and sales situation for the new year and to deploy work related to reforming cotton purchasing and sales.
The meeting pointed out that domestic cotton demand is expected to recover somewhat in the new year, and the domestic production-demand gap for the year is trending wider. Relevant departments and local governments must earnestly perform their duties, properly handle the relationship between new cotton sales, reserve releases and import arrangements, and the relationship between protecting farmers' interests and improving textile competitiveness, guide market cotton prices to run within a reasonable range, and maintain a balance between total domestic cotton supply and demand and basic market stability.
The meeting deployed the cotton purchasing and sales work for the new year: First, earnestly implement reform measures and explore a new cotton purchasing and sales system. Strengthen overall coordination, carefully organize implementation, and ensure the success of the target price reform. Second, clarify the positioning of government functions and earnestly carry out supervision and services. By strengthening cotton market and quality supervision, coordinating financial institutions to guarantee the supply of funds for cotton purchasing, and guiding large cotton enterprises to play a demonstrative and leading role, effectively prevent problems such as excessive government intervention and inadequate supervision. Third, do a good job in market guidance and regulation to create a market environment conducive to promoting new cotton purchasing and sales. After the start of the new year, the state suspended the release of reserve cotton to guide enterprises to actively purchase, process and sell new cotton. In 2015, cotton imports will be properly arranged according to the domestic supply and demand situation; apart from the 894,000-ton tariff quota committed upon WTO accession, in principle no additional import quotas will be issued, so as to guide domestic textile enterprises to use more domestically produced cotton.