SCIO press conference on development of Hainan Free Trade Port

Elephant News:

The Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port and the Hainan Free Trade Port Law propose to formulate a list of goods and articles prohibited and restricted for import and export at the Hainan Free Trade Port. Can you give us a detailed introduction regarding this list? Thank you.

Yuan Xiaoming:

Thanks for your question. As you all know, trade liberalization and facilitation is one of the five key freedoms and conveniences in the policy and institutional framework design of Hainan Free Trade Port. General Secretary Xi Jinping has made important instructions on the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port on many occasions, and made arrangements again last December. The Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments, formulated and issued a list of goods and articles prohibited and restricted for import and export at the Hainan Free Trade Port, as part of the core policies of the free trade port, making a new exploration based on China's current goods trade management model. It can be said that the list is an important institutional arrangement to support the further improvement of trade liberalization and facilitation in Hainan Free Trade Port. Here, I would like to briefly introduce it from two perspectives of transparency and openness.

On the one hand, the list has greatly enhanced the transparency of goods trade management. The list is based on laws and regulations such as the Hainan Free Trade Port Law and the Foreign Trade Law, and for the first time comprehensively and systematically lists the scope of goods and articles that are subject to China's currently effective import and export prohibitions and restrictions, enabling business entities to clearly and conveniently grasp the regulatory boundaries.

Concurrently, the list has significantly increased the openness level of goods trade. Under the premise of fulfilling international convention obligations, safeguarding national security, and ensuring ecological and environmental protection, the list has relaxed the management measures for some imported goods in accordance with the development needs of Hainan Free Trade Port. In short, that means easing restrictions and expanding opening-up pilot programs. The import license requirements for used mechanical and electrical products under 60 commodity codes has been canceled, covering about 80% of such products previously subject to import licensing, which can basically meet own production needs of Hainan's enterprises; at the same time, based on the existing policies of the pilot free trade zone and comprehensive bonded zone, bonded maintenance is permitted for products under 38 commodity codes in Hainan Free Trade Port, achieving the highest level of openness in this field nationwide.

The full text of the list will be published on the Ministry of Commerce's website shortly. The introduction of the list will help optimize the trade development environment and boost trade development momentum within Hainan FTP. Moving forward, the Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant parties to ensure the implementation of the list so that policy benefits flow directly to businesses. Thank you.