Foreign trade has always been a pillar industry of Tongzhou's economic development. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign trade enterprises generally face difficulties such as cancellation or postponement of existing orders, blocked new order signings, and backlogs of foreign trade goods.

In a bid to help the companies overcome difficulties, the Tongzhou district government has issued precise policies to help them adjust market layout in a timely manner and promote the domestic sale of export products.

The district also accelerated the implementation of the national policies on slashing taxes and fees, which will help foreign trade enterprises expand their domestic market.

Affected by the overseas virus outbreak, the foreign trade orders of Nantong Sunion Electronic Co Ltd fell by nearly 60 percent. With the help of the national anti-epidemic and incentive policies, Sunion received a preferential income tax of 1.26 million yuan ($190,309) for high-tech enterprises and a remitted tax of 820,000 yuan.

From Feb to June, the policy of periodically deducting social insurance premiums saved over 1 million yuan for the company. All these incentives bolster Sunion's courage in trying to transfer foreign trade to the domestic market.

Tongzhou district has also issued policies to stabilize foreign market procurement trade in 2020, speeded up foreign trade support funding, strengthened services for foreign trade enterprises, and actively built online sales platforms for enterprises to stimulate their potential for shifting to domestic sales.

Statistically, in the first three quarters of 2020, the district has achieved domestic sales of 181.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.9 percent. The scale of domestic sales is 12.29 times that of exports, accounting for 92.47 percent of total transactions.