Hainan Free Trade Port is ushering in a critical year, what are the key points of construction?
In the first year of the "14th Five-Year Plan", the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port was once again included in the government work report.
According to the plan, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Hainan will initially establish a free trade port policy system.
At the same time, complete the related tasks of the first phase of the free trade port system, and strive to have the hardware conditions for customs closure by the end of 2023 and complete the preparations for the customs closure by the end of 2024.
2021 is a crucial year for Hainan to comprehensively deepen reform and opening up and accelerate the construction of a free trade port.
Cui Weijie, deputy dean of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, told a reporter from China Business News that whether it is China's promotion of the early implementation of RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) or the active consideration of joining the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement) ), and to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, all require the accelerated construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
Work is underway to formulate a negative list of cross-border trade in services
At the "Ministerial Channel" interview event held on the afternoon of March 8, the Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said that this year, he will further increase the intensity of investment, expand the opening up to the outside world, and create a good environment.
"We are also working on a negative list of cross-border trade in services."
The "Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port" (hereinafter referred to as the "Overall Plan") issued in June 2020 clearly stated that a negative list of cross-border service trade in Hainan Free Trade Port was formulated.
The cross-border service trade negative list is a major mode adopted by the current international high-standard free trade agreement in making relevant field opening arrangements. This will be the first negative list announced by my country in the field of cross-border service trade, and it will also be Another major fundamental reform in the process of opening up to the outside world.
On February 3, Yuan Yuan, deputy director of the Free Trade Zone Port Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said in response to a question from a reporter from China Business News that the reason why the Hainan Free Trade Port was chosen to be the "first crab" is that the Hainan Free Trade Port has The unique advantage of implementing the highest level of openness policy has led to the first implementation of the cross-border service trade negative list model, with greater opening up, greater flexibility, and greater testability, which is conducive to speeding up the construction of a high-level free trade port with Chinese characteristics.
Second, as a relatively independent geographical unit, the Hainan Free Trade Port can take the lead in establishing the corresponding management system for the implementation of the negative list of cross-border trade in services, and coordinate the development and safety of the cross-border free trade zone. The negative list of trade in services and the subsequent release of the negative list of national cross-border trade in services to explore ways and accumulate experience.
Third, from the perspective of the needs of the Hainan Free Trade Port, tourism, modern service industry, and high-tech industries are the three major industries that Hainan is striving to develop. These three industries are either key development areas for cross-border service trade or cross-border service trade. Implementation is an important carrier, so the negative list of cross-border service trade will also help the implementation of the Hainan Free Trade Port’s trade liberalization and facilitation system and policy system, which can promote the open development of the three major industries.
In terms of “open doors must be opened even larger,” Wang Wentao also stated that this year, the negative list of foreign investment access must be further reduced as much as possible, which means that the doors are opening wider and the threshold is lowered. Low, allowing foreign investment to enter more easily.
From February 1, the "Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List) of Hainan Free Trade Port (2020 Edition)" came into effect. This Hainan version of the negative list of foreign investment access only has 27 special management measures, which are not only lower than The 33 items in the national version are also lower than the 30 items in the free trade zone version.
With the help of a shorter negative list of foreign investment access, Hainan has further relaxed the access to mining, automobile manufacturing and other fields, and has also made more changes in key areas that market players are paying great attention to, such as value-added telecommunications, education, and business services. Open arrangement.
The opening of Hainan is attracting more and more foreign investment.
Statistics show that in 2020, Hainan will newly set up 1,005 foreign-invested enterprises, a year-on-year increase of 197.3%.
The actual utilization of foreign capital in the whole year was US$3.03 billion, a year-on-year increase of 100.7%, and it has doubled for three consecutive years since 2018.
Four lists of zero tariffs have been implemented one after another
The policy system of the Hainan Free Trade Port focuses on the freedom and convenience of trade and investment.
The "Overall Plan" has made a series of institutional arrangements for the five major freedoms and conveniences of trade, investment, cross-border capital flow, personnel entry and exit, and transportation, as well as the safe and orderly flow of data.
For example, in terms of trade in goods, the implementation of liberalization and facilitation institutional arrangements with "zero tariffs" as the basic feature.
In terms of service trade, the liberalization and facilitation policies and measures with the basic feature of "access and operation" as the basic feature are implemented.
On March 4, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation jointly issued the "Notice on the "Zero Tariff" Policy for Production Equipment in Hainan Free Trade Port for Self-use", marking "the implementation of "zero tariff" on production equipment imported by enterprises for their own use. The "negative list management" policy was implemented.
According to the "Overall Plan", Hainan will implement a zero-tariff policy for some imported goods before the operation of the "island-wide seal", and a "zero-tariff" list of "one negative and three positive" imported goods will be issued.
Up to now, of these four lists, two positive lists of raw materials, transportation vehicles and yachts have been issued, and a negative list of the above-mentioned enterprises' imported production equipment for their own use. Only the positive list of imported goods consumed by residents on the island has not yet been issued.
From the perspective of the implementation effect of the policy, up to now, 5 companies in Hainan have applied for the establishment of raw and auxiliary materials account books, handling 44 shipments of import and export customs clearance procedures, with a value of 890 million yuan, tax reduction and exemption of 99.31 million yuan for import links, and trade methods covering Four types of industries including "production for self-use" stipulated by the policy.
On January 29 this year, the "zero tariff" policy for vehicles and yachts was successfully implemented in Hainan Free Trade Port.
On the same day, Hainan Nimis Industry Co., Ltd. declared that the first imported "zero-tariff" sailboat was cleared and released at Sanya Customs, a subsidiary of Haikou Customs. The value of the sailboat was about 5.5 million yuan, and the tax was reduced or exempted by about 1.9 million yuan.
Since the release of the "Overall Plan", the relevant policies and measures of the Hainan Free Trade Port have continued to be implemented. In addition to the "zero tariff" list of "one negative and three positive" imported goods, there are also new policies for duty-free shopping on outlying islands, Yangpu Free Trade Port Zone Supervision Measures, and the opening 7. Traffic rights, corporate and personal income tax concessions, etc.
my country is shifting from the openness of commodities and factors to the institutional openness of rules, regulations, management, and standards.
Cui Weijie said that Hainan Free Trade Port can play a good role as a pioneer in system innovation and industrial opening up.
For example, "strive to test the relevant rules of CPTPP in Hainan first, and create a pilot zone for international high-standard economic and trade rules in order to join the CPTPP or negotiate higher-level free trade agreement test rules."
In addition, Cui Weijie said that the high-level opening of the Hainan Free Trade Port can also promote each other with the implementation of RCEP and exert a greater integration effect.
"RCEP has more than 200 soft obligations. Soft obligations will become an important direction for my country to optimize the business environment and promote institutional openness. Hainan Free Trade Port can use soft obligations as internal hard constraints, and strive to advance implementation in a pilot manner. "Cui Weijie said.
Attract overseas consumption back
In January this year, Hainan Provincial Party Committee Secretary Shen Xiaoming said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that compared with free trade ports such as Singapore and Dubai, the important advantage of Hainan Free Trade Port is that it is not only open to the whole world, but also backed by a large-scale domestic market.
Hainan can give full play to the unique advantages of the free trade port to serve and integrate into the new development pattern, becoming an active participant and contributor to the construction of the new development pattern.
In terms of attracting consumption backflow and promoting the domestic cycle, Shen Xiaoming said that through the special policies and sales channels of the Hainan Free Trade Port, we can provide domestic consumers with more types, lower prices, and better quality international products and services. Attract Chinese people to go abroad for consumption and return.
At present, Hainan proposes to create three major brands of tax-free shopping, international medical care, and overseas study in Hainan to attract overseas consumption of Chinese residents.
Among them, through the outlying island tax exemption policy, attract overseas high-end commodity consumption to return; through the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pioneer Zone, attract overseas medical consumption to return; through the construction of an international education island, attract overseas education consumption to return.
Thanks to the new tax-free policy for outlying islands, Hainan is promoting the growth of tax-free shopping from a "tens of billions" industry to a "100 billion" industry.
In 2020, the actual sales (including tax) of duty-free shops on outlying islands in Hainan Province will reach 32.73 billion yuan.
From January to February this year, the duty-free sales of nine duty-free shops on outlying islands were 8.49 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 359%.
In January this year, Feng Fei, the then acting governor of Hainan Province, proposed in the government work report that Hainan should improve the island’s duty-free sales network during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, realize the full docking of foreign goods and domestic purchasing power, and attract 300 billion tax-free shopping back. yuan.
In 2021, we will strive to exceed 60 billion yuan in tax-free sales.
"Hainan Daily" reported that Shi Zongwei, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Commissioner of Haikou Customs, believes that due to the impact of the global epidemic, the demand for outbound shopping, studying abroad, and medical treatment has shifted, and there is a huge potential for cross-border consumption to transform into domestic consumption.
In the next step, Haikou Customs will, under the guidance of the General Administration of Customs, promote the full implementation of the four lists of "zero tariffs", domestic sales of processed value-added goods and other tax preferential policies and customs supervision measures to promote duty-free shopping on Hainan’s outlying islands, medical health, cruise ships, The development of key industries such as southern reproduction and breeding has been accelerated.
Author: Xuhui Yun