In recent years, China’s overall tariff level has continued to fall, and more and more commodity imports and exports have entered the “zero-tariff era”. This will not only enhance the linkage effect of both domestic and international markets and resources, improve people’s well-being, benefit enterprises, maintain the stability and smooth domestic industrial and supply chains, but also promote high-level opening-up and let the world share more development opportunities in China.
Imported goods –
Temporary tax rates on some cancer drugs and resource commodities have been reduced to zero. According to the newly released tariff adjustment plan for 2024 (hereinafter referred to as the “plan”), starting from January 1, China will implement provisional import tax rates lower than the most-favored-nation rate on 1010 goods.The provisional tax rate of some drugs and raw materials imported is directly adjusted to zero, such as anticancer drugs used to treat liver malignant tumors, rare disease drug raw materials for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary hypertension, and ipratropium bromide solution for drug inhalation that can be widely used in clinical treatment of children’s asthma diseases.The “zero tariff” is not only drugs, the program also clearly reduced lithium chloride, cobalt carbonate, low arsenic fluorite and sweet corn, coriander, burdock seeds and other commodities import tariffs, import provisional tax rate reached zero. According to expert analysis, lithium chloride, cobalt carbonate and other commodities are the key raw materials of the new energy automobile industry, fluorite is an important mineral resource, and the significant reduction in import tariffs of these products will help support enterprises to allocate resources on a global scale, reduce production costs, and improve the resilience of the industrial chain and supply chain.
Free trade partners –
The number of products subject to reciprocal tariff elimination has gradually increased.
The tariff adjustment involves not only the provisional import tax rate, but also the agreement tax rate, and zero tariff is also one of the highlights.On January 1 this year, the China-Nicaragua Free Trade Agreement came into effect. According to the agreement, the two sides will achieve a high level of mutual opening-up in such areas as trade in goods, trade in services and investment market access. In terms of trade in goods, the two sides will eventually implement zero tariffs on more than 95% of their respective tariff lines, of which the proportion of products immediately implemented zero tariff accounts for about 60% of their respective overall tax lines. This means that when Nicaraguan beef, shrimp, coffee, cocoa, jam and other products enter the Chinese market, the tariff will be gradually reduced to zero; Tariffs on Chinese-made cars, motorcycles, batteries, photovoltaic modules, clothing and textiles will also be gradually reduced when they enter the Nepali market.Shortly after the signing of the China-Nepal Free Trade Agreement, China signed a free trade agreement with Serbia, which is the 22nd free trade agreement signed by China, and Serbia became China’s 29th free trade partner.
The China-Serbia Free Trade Agreement will focus on the relevant arrangements for trade in goods, and the two sides will cancel tariffs on 90 percent of the tax items, of which more than 60 percent will be eliminated immediately after the entry into force of the agreement, and the final proportion of zero-tariff tariff items in the import volume of both sides will reach about 95 percent. Serbia will include cars, photovoltaic modules, lithium batteries, communications equipment, machinery and equipment, refractory materials and some agricultural and aquatic products, which are China’s key concerns, in the zero tariff, and the tariff on relevant products will be gradually reduced from the current 5 to 20 percent to zero. China will include generators, motors, tires, beef, wine and nuts, which are the focus of Serbia, in the zero tariff, and the tariff on relevant products will be gradually reduced from the current 5 to 20 percent to zero.
New signings have been accelerated, and new changes have been made to those already implemented. This year, as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) enters its third year of implementation, the 15 RCEP member countries will further reduce tariffs on light industry, automobiles, electronics, petrochemicals and other products, and further increase the number of products included in the zero-tariff agreement.
Free Trade zone Free trade port –
The “zero tariff” list continues to expand.
We will further promote the implementation of more “zero tariff” policies, and pilot free trade zones and free trade ports will take the lead.
On December 29, 2023, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce and other five departments issued an announcement to pilot import tax policies and measures in conditional free trade pilot zones and free trade ports, which clearly stated that in the special customs supervision area where Hainan Free Trade Port implements “first-line” liberalization and “second-line” control of import and export management system, As for goods temporarily allowed to enter the pilot area for repair by enterprises from overseas as of the date of implementation of this announcement, customs duty, import value-added tax and consumption tax shall be exempted for re-export.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that this measure for the goods currently entering the Hainan Free trade port customs special supervision area for repair “first-line” import bonded, re-exported duty-free, adjusted to direct duty-free, breaking through the current bonded policy; At the same time, allowing the goods that are no longer shipped out of the country to be sold domestically will be conducive to the development of related maintenance industries.
Including temporary import and repair of goods, the Hainan Free Trade Port has made new progress in recent years in terms of “zero tariff”. According to the latest data of Haikou Customs, in the past three years since the implementation of the “zero tariff” policy of raw materials and auxiliary materials in Hainan Free Trade Port, the customs has handled a total of “zero tariff” import customs clearance procedures for raw materials and auxiliary materials, and the cumulative value of imported goods has exceeded 8.3 billion yuan, and tax relief has exceeded 1.1 billion yuan, effectively reducing the production and operation costs of enterprises.
Post time: Jan-09-2024