Since 2018, Hainan has explored the construction of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics, and "the closure of the whole island" has become a high-frequency hot word in Hainan.
The picture shows the permanent venue of the Boao Forum for Asia on March 2023, 3. Photo by Luo Yunfei
On March 3, Hainan Province held the first press conference of "The Time for Prosperity - Progress and Achievements of Hainan in the Five Years of Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Opening Up" at the 29 Annual Conference of the Boao Forum for Asia. According to the meeting, up to now, all preparatory tasks for the operation of the whole island of Hainan have made phased progress, and the preparations for the operation of the whole island have been fully launched.
Is a customs closure an island closure?
In fact, customs closure operation is a customs term, to build a special area supervised by customs on the whole island of Hainan, in this specific area, the concept of "customs closure" can be shortened to: first-line liberalization, second-line control, and freedom on the island.
The closure of the entire island of Hainan is only in terms of tariffs. Goods entering the "first line" of the Hainan Free Trade Port from abroad are liberalized and exempt from tariffs; Entering the mainland from the Hainan Free Trade Port must be controlled by the "second line" of customs.
Aerial photograph of Hainan Yangpu International Container Terminal. Photo by Luo Yunfei (data map)
"First-line" refers to the connection between the Hainan Free Trade Port and the world. This means smoother connectivity with the rest of the world, and a more liberal and convenient trade and investment policy on the island.
The "second line" refers to the connection between the Hainan Free Trade Port and the mainland, that is, moderate control between the Hainan Free Trade Port and the mainland, in order to ensure the unification of national trade control policies and do a good job in connecting with the gap in the mainland's tax system.
The objects of management are mainly goods, commodities and means of transport, but there will be no change in personnel exchanges with the mainland.
Do I need to apply for documents to go to Hainan after customs closure?
For ordinary people, "Hainan fully launched the island-wide customs closure operation" inevitably reminds of the "border defense certificate" that Shenzhen crossed the second-line pass in those years. In fact, the Hainan customs closure does not restrict the movement of people.
The "Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port" clearly states that under the premise of achieving effective supervision, a special area for customs supervision will be built for the operation of customs closure and operation on the whole island. For trade in goods, the liberalization and facilitation system arrangement with "zero tariff" as the basic feature is implemented. For trade in services, liberalization and facilitation policy measures with the basic characteristics of "both access and operation" will be implemented.
The picture shows an aerial photograph of Haikou Port Container Terminal. Photo by Luo Yunfei (data map)
It can be seen that "customs closure" corresponds to "things", and personnel traveling to and from Hainan from China are not affected in any way.
On April 2022, 4, Feng Fei, then governor of Hainan Province, said at the Global Free Trade Port Development Forum at the 21 Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference that there will be no change in personnel exchanges between Hainan and the mainland after the island-wide customs closure, and the flow of goods is more convenient and efficient than that of opening ports to the outside world.
How is the Hainan customs closure operation?
The construction of the island-wide customs closure operation project is a landmark and basic project for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, and it is also the current "No. 1 project" of Hainan Province.
Wang Bin, member of the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial CPC Committee and director of the Propaganda Department, said at the first press conference of "The Booming Time - Progress Achievements of Hainan in the Five Years of Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Opening Up" held at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 3 on March 29 that up to now, all preparatory tasks for the operation of the island-wide customs closure have made phased progress, and a number of difficult policy and system research has been continuously deepened; The first batch of 2023 island-wide customs closure projects led by Hainan Province have all started construction and are progressing smoothly.
Preparations for the operation of the island-wide customs closure have been fully launched, mainly including 64 work tasks, 31 construction projects (port construction, customs inspection equipment, etc.) and 27 stress test items, all of which are in full swing to ensure that the hardware conditions for customs closure are met this year, all preparations for customs closure next year will be completed, and the island-wide customs closure operation will be realized by the end of 2025.
The picture shows Boao Airport. Photo courtesy of Boao Airport (Infographic)
In January this year, the "second-line customs closure" port project of Qionghai Boao Airport was successfully capped, becoming the first customs closure operation project of Hainan Free Trade Port.
Recently, 7 business experts selected by the General Administration of Customs from 10 directly subordinate customs across the country arrived in Hainan, and these business backbones with rich experience will carry out a two-year concentrated attack on Haikou Customs until 2025, when the whole island is closed for operation. In order to fully accelerate the support and promotion of the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, since February this year, the General Administration of Customs has mobilized the strength of the national customs to send more than 2 people from 10 batches of special working groups such as customs sealing operation, smart supervision platform construction, tax administration research, port construction, risk prevention and control, etc., to Hainan to carry out research and inspection and focus on tackling key problems.
Hainan Free Trade Port is booming
The data shows that Hainan has gradually built a free trade port policy system system, more than 15 policy documents such as three "zero tariff" lists, 180% income tax for enterprises and individuals, and duty-free domestic sales of processed value-added goods have been implemented, the negative list for foreign investment access has been reduced to 27, and the five-year increase of business entities has exceeded the sum of the previous three decades. Up to now, the growth rate of business entities has maintained the first place in the country for 36 consecutive months.
The picture shows that on January 2023, 1, CDF Sanya International Duty Free City attracted many customers to shop. Photo by Luo Yunfei
In the past five years, the duty-free sales of Hainan's outlying islands have exceeded 1300 billion yuan. Wang Bin said that Hainan will actively enrich the supply of the duty-free market on Hainan's outlying islands and promote the "three synchronization" of duty-free brands, varieties and prices on outlying islands.
According to the latest policy, it is more convenient for tourists to buy duty-free goods from outlying islands in Hainan. From April 2023, 4, Hainan Islands duty-free shopping has added two new pickup methods: "guaranteed pick-up" and "instant pick-up". (China News Agency WeChat public account collation: Chen Shaoting, Wang Xiaodong)