Promote steady and long-term progress in trade-in with high standards (promote trade-in of consumer goods)

Key standards such as the "General Technical Requirements for Smart Home Appliances" have promoted technological transformation among domestic smart appliance companies. In 2023, the penetration rate of smart home appliances in China reached 47%, higher than the global average, with smart air conditioners reaching a penetration rate of 64.3%.

"In this large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in action, standards play a fundamental and guiding role," said a relevant official from the Standards and Technology Management Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation.

Currently, there are still some bottlenecks in the consumer goods trade-in process, such as data security risks in recycling old digital products, with consumers worried about the leakage of personal information like photos, contacts, and bank cards.

The State Administration for Market Regulation and six other departments jointly issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in through Standards Improvement," aiming to complete the formulation and revision of 294 key national standards in the next two years, including the "Technical Requirements for Information Erasure of Second-hand Electronic Products," providing strong support for equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in.

Qu Zongfeng, Deputy Director of the China Household Electrical Appliances Research Institute, said: "Standards bear the key role of quantifying critical indicators for product trade-in, unifying trade-in process requirements, and regulating the behavior of trade-in participants. This helps resolve bottlenecks in the trade-in process and serves as the technical foundation for formulating trade-in incentive policies."

On the supply side, standards drive investment in technological transformation.

By raising standards for technology, energy consumption, and emissions, enterprises can upgrade equipment, processes, and technologies, eliminate outdated capacity and products, and promote large-scale equipment renewal. The State Administration for Market Regulation will accelerate the upgrade of energy consumption and emission technical standards, formulate and revise 113 related national standards, continuously lead equipment renewal, and help increase the proportion of advanced capacity.

On the demand side, standards promote consumption upgrading.

By establishing safety baselines and improving quality levels through standards, the supply of high-quality products can be continuously expanded, accelerating the upgrading of traditional consumption, leading the creation of new types of consumption, and continuously stimulating domestic demand potential through quality and scale enhancement.

The State Administration for Market Regulation will strengthen the improvement of product quality and safety standards, accelerate the iteration and upgrade of standards for electric vehicles, intelligent connected vehicles, and automotive after-sales services, formulate and revise 115 related national standards, promote consumer goods trade-in, and meet the people's needs for a better life.

At the recycling end, standards facilitate circular utilization.

In the field of circular economy, addressing standard shortcomings can guide manufacturers to focus on product recyclability and renewability during the design phase, regulate product recycling, disassembly, and reuse, and unblock resource recycling bottlenecks. For example, China has formulated and released more than 40 standards related to easy recycling and renewability design for home appliances, as well as recycling, disassembly, and reuse standards, playing an important role in promoting green consumption and recycling of home appliances. From 2012 to 2022, China has regulated the disassembly of over 700 million refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and televisions.

A relevant official from the State Administration for Market Regulation introduced that next steps will increase the supply of recycling and reuse standards, accelerate the improvement of standards for key product recycling, sorting, disassembly, and reuse, formulate and revise 66 related national standards, promote smooth industrial recycling, and help form a closed loop in resource utilization.

Finance is increasing support for consumer goods trade-in. In September 2023, the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued the "Notice on Financial Support for Restoring and Expanding Consumption," focusing on home appliance trade-in, green smart home appliances going to rural areas, and increasing home appliance supply, enhancing financial support for the production, service, and consumption of green smart home appliances. In March this year, the People's Bank of China and the Financial Regulatory Administration jointly introduced policies allowing financial institutions to independently determine the down payment ratio for passenger car loans, reducing consumers' car purchase costs. The Financial Regulatory Administration is actively researching measures to improve and standardize new energy vehicle insurance, further optimizing pricing mechanisms, and promoting the insurance industry to better serve the development of the new energy vehicle industry.

"Banking, insurance, and financial institutions optimize financial services, increase support for consumption of automobiles and green smart home appliances, and help upgrade residents' consumption quality," said a relevant official from the Financial Regulatory Administration. They will continue to guide financial institutions to actively support reasonable consumption demands, improve the construction of the consumer credit system, enhance innovation capabilities of financial products and services, increase support for key areas and new types of consumption, optimize the consumer finance environment, and provide more high-quality financial services for residents' consumption.

The "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in" requires "promoting the practice of resource recycling enterprises issuing 'reverse invoices' to natural persons selling scrap products." On April 25, the State Taxation Administration issued a notice clarifying specific measures and operational methods for resource recycling enterprises' "reverse invoicing." Enterprises only need to submit an application form and qualification certificate to apply for invoicing qualifications, making the process simple and convenient.

To support automobile consumption, the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Finance, and five other departments recently jointly issued the "Implementation Rules for Automobile Trade-in Subsidies," clarifying the subsidy standards for automobile trade-in. Consumers can submit application materials and check progress in real time through the automobile trade-in platform's web and mini-program. The first batch of automobile trade-in subsidies has been gradually distributed across various regions.

"Promoting large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in requires stimulating market forces and mobilizing the enthusiasm of manufacturers, e-commerce platforms, and industry associations to form synergy," said Pan Helin, a member of the Information and Communication Economy Expert Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

A relevant official from the State Administration for Market Regulation stated that they will focus on high-quality industrial development and the people's needs for a better life, select key standards around equipment renewal, consumer goods trade-in, and recycling and reuse, accelerate formulation and revision work, coordinate with policies from various departments, and serve and support large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in.