The development of the foreign trade industry has never relied on policy subsidies, but on its own strength.
On April 1, 2026, the export tax rebate adjustment policy jointly issued by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation was officially implemented, and the country “weaned” export tax rebates for key foreign trade categories such as photovoltaics and batteries. This marked the official shift of my country’s foreign trade from the extensive model of “low prices, volume, and subsidy dependence” to a high-quality development stage of “technology-driven, value competition.”
This export tax rebate adjustment is a precise policy implemented by the country based on the high-quality development strategy of foreign trade. It does not blindly cancel subsidies, but promotes them by category and in stages, taking into account the pain and long-term development of the industry.
According to Announcement No. 2 of 2026 by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation, the policy core is divided into two categories.
First, photovoltaic products: cancel tax rebates in one step.
Starting from April 1, the value-added tax export rebate rate for 249 photovoltaic industry chain products including silicon materials, silicon wafers, cells, modules, inverters, and photovoltaic glass has been directly reduced from 9% to 0%, and export tax rebates have been completely cancelled.
This is the first comprehensive cancellation of the export tax rebate system since the photovoltaic industry was included in 2013. It means that enterprises no longer enjoy value-added tax rebate subsidies for exports. For every 1 million yuan of photovoltaic products exported, the tax rebate income will be directly reduced by 90,000 yuan.
The second is battery products: gradual decline and smooth transition.
Battery products adopt a “first reduce and then cancel” buffer plan: from April 1 to December 31, 2026, the tax rebate rate will be reduced from 9% to 6%; starting from January 1, 2027, export tax rebates will be completely cancelled.
Covering various types of batteries and battery packs such as lithium-ion batteries, lead-acid batteries, and all-vanadium redox flow batteries, companies still have a 6% tax rebate buffer during the transition period, but profit margins have been compressed by 3 percentage points.
In addition, the policy also involves the simultaneous cancellation or reduction of export tax rebates for some high-energy-consuming, low-value-added chemical and building materials products. The core logic is to eliminate low-end production capacity, curb low-price involution, and promote the transformation of industries to high-end and green industries.
What needs to be made clear is that the implementation of the policy is based on the export date indicated on the customs declaration form for export goods. Goods declared before April 1 will still enjoy tax rebates according to the original policy. After that, the new rules will apply.
Export tax rebates are an important source of profits for foreign trade companies. The impact of this “weaning” on corporate costs is rigid and direct.
Taking the industry’s common calculation model as an example, the original tax rebate rate for photovoltaic companies is 9%. After the cancellation, if the original export quotation is maintained, the company’s actual income will be directly reduced by 9%, which is equivalent to a direct reduction of 900,000 yuan in profits for every 10 million yuan of photovoltaic modules exported.
This impact is particularly obvious for small and medium-sized enterprises that originally have meager profits and rely on tax refunds for survival. Some companies even face the risk of zero profits and losses.
During the transition period, the tax rebate rate for battery companies will be reduced by 3 percentage points, and corporate profits will be reduced by 3%; after it is completely canceled in 2027, profits will be reduced by 9%, facing the same pressure as photovoltaic companies.
In addition to tax refund losses, combined with factors such as global supply chain fluctuations, rising raw material prices, and rising logistics costs, the comprehensive costs of foreign trade companies have further increased.
Taking the photovoltaic industry as an example, the price of silver paste, as a core auxiliary material, has risen sharply recently. With the cancellation of superimposed tax rebates, the cumulative cost of module production has increased by more than 15%.
For a long time, my country’s foreign trade companies have relied on low-price competition to seize the international market, and tax rebate subsidies have become an important support for maintaining low prices. Now that subsidies have been cancelled, the low-price model is unsustainable, and price increases have become an inevitable choice.
Many foreign trade bosses are worried about price increases and are worried about losing overseas customers and market share.
However, from the perspective of industry rules and market reality, this price increase is not a unilateral “willful price increase” by the company, but the joint result of cost pressure, policy guidance, and market consensus, and is fully rational and feasible.
Costs are rising rigidly, and price increases are the bottom line for survival; bid farewell to low-price involution, and price increases promote high-quality development of the industry; overseas markets have expectations, and price increases are feasible.
Price increase is not simply “raising numbers”, but a systematic strategy and practical plan.
Combining front-line experience, foreign trade bosses can determine the reasonable range of price increases by accurately calculating costs, communicating in hierarchical categories to gain customer understanding, optimizing product structure to increase added value to offset the impact of price increases, operating in compliance to avoid policy and legal risks, and other four practical paths to ensure the implementation of price increases, customer retention, and profit growth.
The state’s “weaning” of foreign trade enterprises may seem like pressure, but it is actually an opportunity.
In the short term, companies will face pains such as profit compression and customer communication, but in the long term, this is the only way for the transformation and upgrading of the foreign trade industry.
As low-price involution is contained, industry resources will be concentrated in high-quality enterprises, and technological innovation, quality improvement, and brand building will become core competitiveness. my country’s foreign trade will gradually get rid of the “low-end manufacturing” label and move toward the mid-to-high end of the global value chain.
For every foreign trade boss, this is an opportunity to re-examine themselves and reshape their competitiveness.
Instead of sticking to low prices and relying on subsidies, it is better to actively embrace changes, increase prices scientifically, deepen technology, optimize services, and gain a firm foothold in the wave of high-quality development.
The future of the foreign trade industry has never been supported by subsidies, but by strength. The country’s “weaning” is precisely for us to truly grow into a strong player in the global market.
