The State Council issues a heavyweight document concerning the opening of free trade zones and free trade ports to international high standards | State Council | International
On June 29th, it was reported that the State Council recently issued the "Several Measures for Pilot Connection with International High Standards and Promoting Institutional Opening in Conditional Free Trade Pilot Zones and Free Trade Ports". Propose to support pilot areas in carrying out import pilot projects for remanufactured products in key industries. The relevant imported products are not subject to the relevant measures of China prohibiting or restricting the import of old products, but should comply with all applicable technical requirements and relevant regulations on remanufactured products for the same new products of the country, and be marked with the words "remanufactured products" in a prominent position. The pilot areas shall propose pilot plans based on their own actual conditions, clarify the list of relevant imported products and the specific standards, requirements, conformity assessment procedures, and regulatory measures applicable; The relevant departments should jointly study and make a decision within 6 months after receiving the pilot plan. Relevant departments and localities should strengthen supervision, management, and inspection of remanufactured products, and strictly prevent the import of foreign waste and old products under the name of remanufactured products.
Several Measures for Promoting Institutional Openness by Connecting with International High Standards in Conditional Pilot Free Trade Zones and Pilot Free Trade Ports
In order to better serve and accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, and focus on promoting high-quality development, we will pilot docking with international high standard economic and trade rules in key areas such as conditional free trade pilot zones and free trade ports, coordinate openness and security, and build an institutional system and regulatory model that is connected with high-level institutional openness. The following measures are proposed.
1. promotes innovative development of trade in goods
1. Support pilot areas to carry out pilot projects for the import of remanufactured products in key industries. Relevant imported products are not applicable to my country's relevant measures to prohibit or restrict the import of used products, but they should comply with all applicable technical requirements of the country for the same new products and relevant regulations on remanufactured products, and the words "remanufactured products" shall be marked in a prominent position. The pilot area shall put forward the pilot scheme according to its own actual situation, clarify the list of relevant imported products and the applicable specific standards, requirements, conformity assessment procedures and regulatory measures; the relevant departments shall jointly study and make a decision within 6 months after receiving the pilot scheme. Relevant departments and localities shall strengthen supervision, management and inspection of remanufactured products, and strictly prevent the import of foreign garbage and used products in the name of remanufactured products.
2. Aircraft and ships that are temporarily repaired and transported back to pilot areas, regardless of whether they are value-added, are exempt from tariffs. The above-mentioned aircraft refer to aircraft operated by aviation enterprises with pilot areas as their main operating bases, while ships refer to ships operated by shipping companies registered and with independent legal personality in pilot areas with ports within the pilot areas as their registered ports.
3. Goods temporarily allowed to enter pilot areas for repair from overseas and re transported out of the country shall be exempt from customs duties; If the goods are not transported out of the country and converted into domestic sales, customs duties shall be levied according to regulations.
4. For the following goods temporarily entering pilot areas from overseas, after the taxpayer provides guarantees to the customs at the time of entry, they may temporarily not pay tariffs, import value-added tax, and consumption tax: professional equipment necessary for temporary entry personnel to conduct business, trade, or professional activities in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations; Goods used for exhibitions or demonstrations; Commercial samples, advertising videos, and recordings; Sports equipment necessary for sports competitions, performances, or training. The above-mentioned goods shall be transported out of the country within 6 months from the date of entry, and shall not be used for commercial purposes such as sales or leasing during the temporary entry period. If it is necessary to extend the time limit for re transportation out of the country, the extension procedures should be handled according to regulations.
5. Customs in pilot areas shall not refuse preferential tariff treatment for goods solely due to minor errors in the certificate of origin, such as printing errors, typing errors, or omissions of non critical information, or minor differences between documents.
6. If the applicant for customs pre ruling has not changed the law, facts, and circumstances on which the pre ruling is based, they may apply for an extension of the pre ruling to the customs in the pilot area. The customs in the pilot area shall make a decision as soon as possible before the expiration of the validity period of the ruling.
7. Under the premise of meeting the regulatory requirements of China's customs and completing necessary quarantine procedures, the customs in pilot areas shall release air freight express goods that have submitted necessary customs documents within 6 hours after arrival under normal circumstances.
8. On the premise of complying with relevant laws, regulations and provisions in China and completing necessary quarantine procedures, the customs in the pilot area shall release goods that have arrived and submitted all necessary information for customs clearance within 48 hours as much as possible.
9. If the customs duties, other import taxes, and fees are not determined before the arrival of the goods, but they meet the release conditions in other aspects and have provided guarantees to the customs or completed the dispute payment procedures as required, the customs in the pilot area should release them.
10. In pilot areas, relevant departments shall approve or recognize the qualifications of overseas qualified assessment institutions in other ways, and the same or equivalent procedures, standards, and other conditions shall be applied to domestic qualified assessment institutions; Foreign qualified assessment institutions shall not be allowed to obtain legal personality or establish representative offices within China as a condition for recognizing the certification results issued by them or the inspection and testing results related to certification.
11. For information technology equipment products imported in pilot areas, relevant departments should allow the supplier's compliance statement to be used as a clear guarantee of product compliance with electromagnetic compatibility standards or technical regulations.
12. In pilot areas, it is allowed to import wines with labels that include chateau, classic, clos, cream, rusted/cruising, fine, late bottomed vintage, noble, reserve, ruby, special reserve, solera, superior, sur lie, tawny, vintage, or vintage character descriptive or morphological words.
2. Promoting Free and Facilitating Trade in Services
13. In addition to specific new financial services, if Chinese-funded financial institutions are allowed to carry out a certain new financial service, foreign-funded financial institutions in the pilot areas should be allowed to carry out similar services. The financial authority may, ex officio, determine the type and nature of institutions to carry out this new financial service and require a licence to carry out this service. The financial authority shall make a decision within a reasonable period of time and may only deny permission for reasons of prudence.
14. The financial management departments of pilot areas shall, in accordance with the principle of internal and external consistency, make a decision within 120 days after receiving complete and legally compliant applications related to the provision of financial services from overseas financial institutions, investors of overseas financial institutions, and cross-border financial service providers, and notify the applicants in a timely manner. If a decision cannot be made within the above-mentioned deadline, the financial regulatory department should immediately notify the applicant and strive to make a decision within a reasonable period of time.
15. Enterprises registered in pilot areas and individuals working or living in pilot areas are allowed to legally purchase overseas financial services across borders. The specific types of overseas financial services shall be determined separately by the financial management department.
16. Encourage overseas professionals to provide professional services to enterprises and residents in pilot areas in accordance with the law, and support pilot areas in establishing and improving procedures for evaluating the capabilities of overseas professionals.
3. facilitate the temporary entry of business personnel
17. Allowing the accompanying spouse and family members of an internal transfer expert of a foreign-invested enterprise within the pilot area to enjoy the same period of entry and temporary stay as the expert.
18. For senior management personnel of foreign enterprises planning to establish branches or subsidiaries in pilot areas, the validity period of their temporary entry stay will be relaxed to 2 years, and accompanying spouses and family members are allowed to enjoy the same entry and temporary stay period.
4. promotes healthy development of digital trade
19. For the import, distribution, sale or use of mass market software and products containing the software, the relevant departments and their staff shall not transfer or obtain the relevant software source code owned by enterprises and individuals as a condition.
20. Support pilot areas to improve consumer rights protection systems and prohibit fraudulent and commercial activities that cause harm or potential harm to consumers in online business activities.
5. to increase efforts to optimize the business environment
21. The pilot area should allow all transfers related to foreign investors' investments that are true and compliant to be remitted freely and without delay. Such transfers include: capital contributions; profits, dividends, interest, capital gains, royalties, management fees, technical guidance fees and other fees; proceeds from the sale of investments in whole or in part and proceeds from the liquidation of investments in whole or in part; payments made under contracts, including loan agreements; compensation or indemnities received under the law; and payments arising from the settlement of disputes.
22. If the purchaser in the pilot area adopts a single source method for government procurement, the reason for adopting this method should be explained when announcing the transaction results.
23. For published patent applications and granted patents involving business entities in pilot areas, the competent authority shall disclose the following information in accordance with relevant regulations: search and examination results; The non confidential response of the patent applicant; Patent and non patent literature citations submitted by patent applicants and relevant third parties.
24. When the people's court in the pilot area requests intellectual property related remedies from the operating entity, and the applicant provides reasonable evidence and preliminary proof that their rights are being or will be infringed upon, they should quickly take relevant measures in accordance with relevant judicial rules without hearing the other party's statement in advance.
When the relevant departments in the pilot areas investigate suspected unfair competition behavior, they should provide guidance to the investigated operators. If the operators make relevant commitments and timely correct, actively eliminate or mitigate the harmful consequences according to the commitments, they shall be given lighter, mitigated or no administrative penalties in accordance with the law.
26. Support enterprises, commercial organizations, non-governmental organizations, etc. in pilot areas to establish voluntary mechanisms to improve environmental performance, and encourage their participation in the formulation and revision of voluntary environmental performance evaluation standards.
27. Support enterprises in pilot areas to voluntarily follow the principles of corporate social responsibility in the field of the environment. The relevant principles should be consistent with international standards and guidelines that China supports or supports.
28. Support labor and personnel dispute arbitration institutions in pilot areas to provide arbitration awards in writing to the parties in a standardized and timely manner, and to make them public in accordance with the law.
6. improve the risk prevention and control system
29. Pilot areas should establish and improve major risk identification and systemic risk prevention systems. The Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with relevant departments, should strengthen overall coordination and guidance and evaluation, strengthen the analysis and judgment of various risks, and strengthen security risk investigation, dynamic monitoring and real-time early warning.
30. Establish a sound security assessment mechanism, and the Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with relevant departments and local governments, promptly follow up on the progress of the pilot project. Based on changes in the external environment and trends in the international situation, analyze and evaluate new situations and problems. Depending on the degree of risk, measures such as adjustment, suspension, or termination will be taken to continuously optimize the pilot implementation measures.
31. Strengthen risk prevention and resolution, refine prevention and control measures, and build a security protection system that integrates systems, management, and technology.
32. Implement risk prevention and control responsibilities, relevant localities implement main responsibilities, while promoting relevant reforms, establish and improve risk prevention and control supporting measures, and improve the safety production responsibility system; Relevant departments should strengthen guidance and supervision, and carry out supervision in accordance with their responsibilities.
33. Strengthen supervision before, during, and after the event, improve regulatory rules, innovate regulatory methods, strengthen collaborative supervision, establish a clear, fair, transparent, and efficient regulatory system, and coordinate the promotion of market supervision, quality supervision, safety supervision, and financial supervision.
We need to coordinate openness and security, firmly establish an overall national security concept, strengthen risk awareness, establish bottom line thinking, safeguard national core interests and political security, establish and improve risk prevention and control systems, enhance our own competitiveness, open supervision capabilities, and risk prevention and control capabilities. We must adhere to green development, build a solid ecological security barrier, and effectively safeguard the national ecological environment security and the physical health of the people. The Ministry of Commerce should play a coordinating role and work with relevant departments to strengthen the system integration of various pilot measures, promoting efficient collaboration between departments and local governments. All relevant departments should strengthen guidance, services, and supervision and management according to their respective responsibilities, and actively promote the resolution of problems encountered in the pilot reform. Regarding the pilot free trade zones, free trade ports, and the provincial governments where they are located, they should bear the main responsibility, refine and decompose tasks, effectively prevent and control risks, and accelerate the implementation of various pilot measures. If specific opinions, methods, detailed rules, and plans need to be formulated, they should be completed within one year from the date of issuance of this measure to ensure effective implementation. If it is necessary to adjust current laws or administrative regulations, it shall be handled in accordance with legal procedures. Promptly seek instructions and reports from the Party Central Committee and the State Council on major issues.
