A few days before the opening of the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE), the first “Jinbo” China-Europe Freight Train arrived in Shanghai from Hamburg, Germany, marking the first time for exhibits for the CIIE to be sent by freight train to the municipality.     In the context of serious congestion in the international logistics supply chain, China-Europe freight trains have almost become one of the most stable links in global trade. In the future, the two-way freight train between Shanghai and Hamburg will gradually reach the goal of running 500 trains a year.     Whether it is opening the “Shanghai channel” on the main artery of international trade, or providing access to the CIIE big stage to share “China's opportunities”... All these measures to uphold the banner of economic globalization are taken by China as it continues to open wider to the outside world and actively participates in the global trade value chain. On December 11 this year, China will usher in the 20th anniversary of its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), a landmark event marking the country's integration into the world. As an important economic center city, Shanghai is exploring a higher level of reform and opening up with the help of the CIIE and other major opportunities, creating a central node of the internal circulation and a strategic link to the dual circulation, and better showcasing the world the Chinese concept, Chinese solution and Chinese road.

Firm openness and integration at a broader level     Looking back on the journey since its accession to the WTO, China has quickly found the basis for its integration into the rules of the global economy and trade system, and has used this as a fulcrum to continue to drive reform with openness and gradually pry up a huge domestic market system.     The "upward curve" exemplifies Shanghai's development: over the past 20 years, Shanghai's import and export data, the number of foreign investment attracted and other core economic indicators have always been on the upward path. In the first three quarters of this year, Shanghai achieved a total import and export value of 2.92 trillion CNY, an increase of 15.4% over the same period last year. Wherein, exports totaled 1.1 trillion CNY, up 9.9%; imports totaled 1.82 trillion CNY, up 19.1%; and the trade deficit increased by 36.8% to 711.16 billion CNY.     In November 2018, 17 years after its accession to the WTO, China resolutely held the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, taking the initiative to expand its opening-up, holding high the banner of multilateral free trade with practical actions, and sharing the spillover effects of China's market and reform and opening-up with the rest of the world.     In recent years, Shanghai has done its best to make the CIIE "better and better". In the 4th CIIE this year, 58 countries and 3 international organizations participated in the national exhibitions, and nearly 3,000 exhibitors from 127 countries and regions showed up at the enterprise exhibition. The number of countries and enterprises exceeded that of the last CIIE.

Benchmarking the best criteria and conducting a deeper dialog     The most important change brought by China's accession to the WTO is that it integrates itself into the world more confidently and makes use of the impetus brought by opening-up to continuously promote deep-seated reform, and Shanghai is a test field at the forefront of reform and opening-up.     In September 2013, the Shanghai Free Trade Experimental Zone issued the country's first negative list of foreign investment, and a record-keeping system was implemented outside the list. This is the most basic and important reform of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, which has taken an important step to converge with the internationally accepted investment rules. Today, on this basis, China has fully implemented the negative list management model in the field of foreign investment. The management matters identified in the list are shrinking, with increasing openness and transparency.     Openness in no way means passive waiting, but the initiative to benchmark internationally accepted rules of investment and trade, the highest standards and the best level.     Just last month, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone's "Offshore Pass" platform was launched in Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone. To date, the platform has access to customs declaration data of 17 countries outside of China, and connected with shipping companies and port handling information covering about 60% of international maritime business. It may not only assist in judging the authenticity of offshore trade of enterprises in Pudong New Area, but also expand  its service scope to the Yangtze River Delta region and the whole country in the future.

Elevating the discourse power and leading at a higher level     Copper prices generated by the Shanghai futures market are being taken more and more seriously by investors with years of accumulation of the original copper futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange and the timely launch of international copper futures, which are denominated in CNY and fully introduced to foreign traders.     The 14th Five-year Plan for the Construction of Shanghai International Financial Center, which was released not long ago, clearly provides that "Shanghai prices" such as Shanghai Gold and Shanghai Oil are supported to be widely used in the international financial market, so as to increase China's influence on the prices of important commodities in the world. It is foreseeable that as more and more foreign companies start to use the "Shanghai price" to do business, this price, based on the Shanghai international financial center, will surely become a vane leading the global market.     In the recently released Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Supporting the Pudong New Area in Building Itself into a Leading Area in Socialist Modernization through High-standard Reform and Opening-up, it explicitly calls on Pudong to "take the lead in establishing a new open economic system in line with the internationally accepted rules".     China is ready to make a greater contribution to the restructuring of global economic and trade governance rules. As a socialist modern international metropolis aspiring to enhance its influence in the world, Shanghai should not only accelerate the gathering and allocation of global resources to help China's production, distribution, circulation and consumption, but also deeply participate in and even lead the global trend, and become the best springboard for "going global" and the frontier position for "bringing in" with factor links, capacity links, market links and rule links.