zou jiayi, vice minister of the ministry of finance, answered questions at the press conference of the state council information office on monday, june 8, 2020. the transcript is summarized as follows:
china financial news: before the closure in 2025, the construction of hainan free trade port will implement the "zero tariff" policy, which will result in early harvest. what is the ministry of finance thinking? thank you
zou jiayi: thank you for your question. several of you have mentioned the policy of "zero tariff". "zero tariff" is a very important institutional design of hainan free trade port. specifically speaking, it is to implement the "zero tariff" trade liberalization and facilitation institutional arrangement step by step. the early harvest of the "zero tariff" policy is to take the lead in implementing "zero tariff" on some imported goods before the whole island is closed in 2025, and exempt import tariffs, import value-added tax and consumption tax. specifically include a few respects: it is production equipment. we will implement zero-tariff negative list management for production equipment used by enterprises themselves. second, vehicles. the island applies zero-tariff administration to vessels, aircraft and other means of transportation and tourism as well as yachts. third, raw materials. for the raw and auxiliary materials consumed by domestic production or export processing with "two ends outside" mode, zero-tariff positive list management will be implemented. fourth, consumer goods for residents. import goods consumed by residents on the island will be subject to zero-tariff list management, allowing residents to buy them duty-free. these four categories of goods were just mentioned by vice minister wen, namely "one minus three positives" list management. in addition, the fifth step is to greatly relax the policy of duty-free shopping on offshore islands. the amount of duty-free shopping has been increased from 30,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan per person per year, and the categories of duty-free goods have been further expanded on the basis of the current 38 categories of goods. meanwhile, the management has been optimized to make shopping more convenient for tourists. if you go to hainan to travel, i suggest you bring more money, more shopping consumption. sixth, we will support hainan in developing its mice economy and carrying out international exchanges. to study and introduce duty-free policies on import and sales of overseas exhibits in national exhibitions during the exhibition period. it's an early harvest.
when conditions are ripe and the island-wide closure operation is implemented in 2025, import duties will be exempted on all imported goods other than those listed in the list of commodities subject to import duties on the basis of a simplified tax system. this is the final institutional arrangement to achieve "zero tariff". just now, vice foreign minister wen said that the state should draw up a list of goods subject to import duties. only those goods in the list are still subject to tariffs, and most other imported goods that are not on the list will be exempted from import duties.
the "early harvest" of the zero-tariff policy is rich in content, covering all aspects of hainan's economic life. the beneficiaries include producers, such as enterprises, and consumers, such as residents and tourists. from the perspective of supporting industries, it includes both material production enterprises and service enterprises. from the perspective of commodity scope, it includes not only large-scale production equipment and means of transportation, but also consumer goods used by residents in daily life. in the future, we will formulate four lists of "one minus three positives". in formulating the four lists, we will focus on supporting high-tech, ecological and environmental protection industries with hainan characteristics, so as to continuously consolidate the industrial foundation for the development of hainan's real economy. at the same time, the list of "one minus three positives" will be dynamically adjusted according to the actual situation in hainan. on the whole, we should gradually shorten the negative list, expand the positive list, and continuously release the policy dividend of "zero tariff".
the key to "early harvest" of zero tariff is "early", which means early arrival and early results. on the one hand, it can attract more people, logistics and capital flows to hainan, and provide economic support for the development of hainan free trade port. at the same time, we will enhance people's confidence in the development of hainan. on the other hand, it is also to accumulate experience and make preparations for the implementation of the closure of the whole island after 2025.
in accordance with the requirements of the overall plan, we will actively promote the early implementation of fiscal and tax policies for the free trade port, build hainan free trade port with high quality and high standards, and make hainan free trade port a bright banner of reform and opening up in the new era. thank you.
source: ministry of finance, prc