Notice of the State Council on Several Measures for Promoting System-based Opening Up in Qualified Pilot Free Trade Zones and Free Trade Ports

Guofa [ 2023 ] No. 9

The people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, all ministries and commissions of the State Council, and all institutions directly under the State Council:

The "Several Measures for Promoting System-based Opening Up in Qualified Pilot Free Trade Zones and Free Trade Ports" is hereby issued to you, please implement it conscientiously.

State Council

June 1 , 2023 _ _

(This article has been deleted)

Several Measures Concerning the Pilot Program of Connecting with International High Standards in Qualified Free Trade Pilot Zones and Free Trade Ports to Promote System-based Opening-up

Promoting high-level opening up to the outside world, implementing the strategy of upgrading the pilot free trade zone, accelerating the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port, and steadily expanding the institutional opening up of rules, regulations, management, and standards are major measures to implement Xi Jinping's new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is an important task deployed by the Party's 20th National Congress. Accelerate the construction of a new development pattern for better services, focus on promoting high-quality development, and focus on piloting some key areas in qualified free trade pilot zones and free trade ports to connect with international high-standard economic and trade rules, coordinate opening up and security, and build a high-level system In order to establish an institutional system and regulatory model that connects with the opening-up model, the following measures are proposed.

1. Promoting the innovative development of trade in goods

1. Support pilot regions to carry out pilot projects for the import of remanufactured products in key industries. Relevant imported products do not apply to my country's relevant measures prohibiting or restricting the import of old products, but they should meet all applicable technical requirements of the country for equivalent new products (including but not limited to quality characteristics, safety and environmental protection performance, etc.) and relevant regulations on remanufactured products, and Mark the words "remanufactured product" in a prominent position. Pilot regions shall put forward a pilot plan according to their own actual conditions, clarify the list of relevant imported products and applicable specific standards, requirements, conformity assessment procedures and regulatory measures; relevant departments shall jointly study and make a decision within 6 months after receiving the pilot plan. Relevant departments and localities strengthen supervision, management and inspection of remanufactured products, and strictly prevent foreign garbage and old products from being imported in the name of remanufactured products. (Scope of application: Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin, Fujian, Beijing Pilot Free Trade Zone and Hainan Free Trade Port, the scope of application is the same as above except for the measures applicable to specific pilot areas below)

2. Aircraft and ships (including related parts and components) that are temporarily out of the country for repairs and then re-transported into the pilot area are exempted from tariffs, regardless of whether they have added value or not. The above-mentioned aircraft refers to the aircraft operated by the aviation enterprise whose main operation base is in the pilot area, and the ship refers to the ship registered in the pilot area and operated by a shipping company with independent legal personality, whose port of registry is at the port in the pilot area. (Scope of application: Hainan Free Trade Port)

3. For the goods that are temporarily allowed to enter the pilot area for repairs from abroad, if they are re-exported, they will be exempted from customs duties; (Scope of application: Hainan Free Trade Port is a special customs supervision area where the "first line" is released and the "second line" controls the import and export management system)

4. For the following goods that temporarily enter the pilot area from abroad, after the taxpayer provides a guarantee to the customs at the time of entry, the customs duty, import value-added tax and consumption tax can be temporarily exempted: Temporary entry personnel who comply with the provisions of Chinese laws to carry out business and trade or professional equipment necessary for professional activities (including software, instruments, equipment and supplies used for news reports or filming, television programs, etc.); goods used for exhibitions or demonstrations; commercial samples, advertising films and recordings; sports Sporting goods necessary for competition, performance or training, etc. The above-mentioned goods shall be re-exported within 6 months from the date of entry , and shall not be used for commercial purposes such as sale or lease during the temporary entry period. If it is necessary to extend the time limit for re-exportation, the extension formalities shall be handled in accordance with regulations.

5. Customs in pilot regions shall not refuse to grant preferential tariff treatment to goods just because of minor errors in the certificate of origin such as typographical errors, typos, omission of non-critical information, or minor differences between documents.

6. The applicant of the customs pre-rule may submit an application for extension of the pre-rule to the customs in the pilot area if the law, facts and circumstances on which the pre-rule is based have not changed. The customs in the pilot area shall make a decision as soon as possible before the validity period of the ruling expires.

7. Under the premise of meeting the supervision requirements of China's customs and completing the necessary quarantine procedures, the customs in the pilot areas will normally release the air express cargo that has submitted the necessary customs documents within 6 hours after arrival.

8. Under the premise of complying with the relevant laws and regulations of our country and the relevant regulations and completing the necessary quarantine procedures, the customs in the pilot areas will release the goods that have arrived and submitted all the information required for customs clearance within 48 hours as much as possible.

9. If the customs duties, other import taxes and fees have not been determined before the arrival of the goods (including the time of arrival), but they meet the release conditions in other respects, and have provided guarantees to the customs or have fulfilled the disputed payment procedures as required, the customs in the pilot area should be released.

10. In the pilot areas, the relevant departments approve or otherwise recognize the qualifications of overseas conformity assessment institutions, and shall apply the same or equivalent procedures, standards and other conditions for domestic conformity assessment institutions; Or establish a representative agency as a condition for recognizing the certification results issued by it or the certification-related inspection and testing results.

11. For the import of information technology equipment products in the pilot area, the relevant departments should allow the supplier's declaration of conformity as an explicit guarantee that the product complies with the electromagnetic compatibility standards or technical regulations.

12. In pilot areas, it is allowed to import labels including chateau (château), classic (classic), clos (vineyard), cream (smooth), crusted/crusting (with lees), fine (exquisite) , late bottled vintage (late-type vintage wine), noble (noble), reserve (collection), ruby (ruby red), special reserve (special collection), solera (Soleira), superior (higher level) , sur lie (lees aging), tawny (aged yellow port wine), vintage (year) or vintage character (year characteristics) descriptors or adjectives of wine.

2. Promoting the Freedom and Facilitation of 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 area should be allowed to carry out similar services. The financial management department can determine the type and nature of institutions that carry out this new financial service according to their powers, and require permission to carry out this service. The financial authority shall take a decision within a reasonable period and may only withhold permission for prudential reasons.

14. In accordance with the principle of internal and external consistency, financial management departments in pilot areas shall, after receiving complete and statutory applications related to financial services submitted by overseas financial institutions, investors of overseas financial institutions, and cross-border financial service providers, A decision is made within 120 days and the applicant is notified promptly. If a decision cannot be made within the above-mentioned period, the financial management department shall notify the applicant immediately and try to make a decision within a reasonable period.

15. Allow enterprises registered in the pilot areas and individuals working or living in the pilot areas to purchase overseas financial services across borders in accordance with the law. The specific types of overseas financial services shall be separately stipulated by the financial management department.

16. Encourage foreign professionals to provide professional services to enterprises and residents in the pilot areas in accordance with the law, and support the pilot areas to establish and improve the procedures for evaluating and evaluating the abilities of foreign professionals.

3. Facilitate the temporary entry of business personnel

17. Accompanying spouses and family members of experts transferred internally by foreign-invested enterprises in pilot areas are allowed to enjoy the same entry and temporary stay period as the experts.

18. For senior management personnel of foreign companies who plan to establish branches or subsidiaries in pilot areas, the validity period of temporary entry stay is extended to 2 years, and accompanying spouses and family members are allowed to enjoy the same entry and temporary stay period.

4. Promote the healthy development of digital trade

19. For the import, distribution, sale or use of mass market software (excluding software used for critical information infrastructure) and products containing such software, relevant departments and their staff shall not transfer or acquire relevant information owned by enterprises or individuals. Software source code as a conditional requirement.

20. Support the pilot areas to improve the consumer rights protection system, and prohibit fraud and commercial fraud that cause damage or potential damage to consumers in online commercial activities.

5. Increase efforts to optimize the business environment

21. Pilot regions should allow all real and compliant transfers related to foreign investment to be freely remitted in and out without delay. Such transfers include: capital contributions; profits, dividends, interest, capital gains, royalties, management fees, technical guidance fees and other expenses; proceeds from the sale or partial liquidation of an investment, in whole or in part; Payments made under contracts including; compensation or compensation obtained in accordance with the law; payments arising from dispute resolution.

22. If the purchaser in the pilot area adopts the single-source method for government procurement, it shall explain the reason for adopting this method when announcing the transaction result.

23. For published patent applications and granted patents involving business entities in the pilot regions, the competent authority should disclose the following information in accordance with relevant regulations: search and examination results (including details or information related to the search of relevant prior art); Non-confidential responses from patent applicants; patent and non-patent literature citations submitted by patent applicants and relevant third parties.

24. The people's courts in the pilot areas shall, after the applicant has provided reasonably obtainable evidence and initially proved that its rights are being infringed or will be infringed upon the intellectual property rights related relief requests filed by the business entities, it shall not hear the statement of the other party in advance. Quickly take relevant measures in accordance with relevant judicial rules.

25. When the relevant departments in the pilot area investigate suspected unfair competition, they should give guidance to the business operators under investigation. If the business operators make relevant commitments and make timely corrections according to the commitments, take the initiative to eliminate or mitigate the harmful consequences, they will be given a lighter, mitigated or not punished according to law. Administrative penalties.

26. Support the establishment of voluntary mechanisms for enterprises, commercial organizations, and non-governmental organizations in the pilot areas to improve environmental performance (including voluntary auditing and reporting, implementation of market-based incentives, voluntary sharing of information and expertise, and government-social capital cooperation etc.), and encourage them to participate in the formulation and revision of environmental performance assessment standards for voluntary mechanisms.

27. Support enterprises in the pilot areas to voluntarily follow the principles of corporate social responsibility in the environmental field. Relevant principles should be consistent with the international standards and guidelines that my country endorses or supports.

28. Support the labor and personnel dispute arbitration institutions in the pilot areas to provide arbitration awards to the parties in written form in a standardized and timely manner, and 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, together with relevant departments, should strengthen overall coordination, guidance and evaluation, strengthen analysis and judgment of various risks, and strengthen safety risk investigation, dynamic monitoring and real-time early warning.

30. To improve the safety assessment mechanism, the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments and localities, will follow up the progress of the pilot program in a timely manner, analyze and evaluate new situations and new problems in light of changes in the external environment and international situation trends, and adjust, suspend or terminate them respectively according to the degree of risk. Disposal measures and continuous optimization of pilot implementation measures.

31. Strengthen risk prevention and resolution, refine prevention and control measures, and build a security protection system that matches systems, management, and technology.

32. Implement risk prevention and control responsibilities. Relevant localities implement main responsibilities. While promoting relevant reforms, establish and improve supporting measures for risk prevention and control, and improve safety production responsibility systems; relevant departments strengthen guidance and supervision, and do a good job of supervision according to their duties.

33. Strengthen pre-event, interim and post-event supervision, improve supervision rules, innovate supervision methods, strengthen coordinated supervision, improve a supervision system with clear rights and responsibilities, fairness and justice, openness, transparency, simplicity and efficiency, and coordinate the promotion of market supervision, quality supervision, safety supervision, and financial supervision. regulation etc.

All relevant departments and localities should follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, uphold the overall leadership of the Party, and conscientiously organize and implement various institutional opening-up pilot tasks. It is necessary 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, and improve their own competitiveness, open supervision capabilities, and risk prevention and control capabilities. It is necessary to adhere to green development, build a solid ecological security barrier, and effectively safeguard the national ecological environment security and the health of the people. The Ministry of Commerce should play an overall and coordinating role, work with relevant departments to strengthen the system integration of various pilot measures, and promote efficient coordination between departments and localities. All relevant departments should strengthen guidance services and supervision and management in accordance with the division of responsibilities, and actively promote the resolution of problems encountered in the reform pilot. Relevant free trade pilot zones, free trade ports, and local provincial people's governments should assume the main responsibility, detail and decompose tasks, effectively prevent and control risks, and accelerate the implementation of various pilot measures. If it is really necessary to formulate specific opinions, measures, detailed rules, and plans, it should be completed within one year from the date of issuance of these measures to ensure that they are effective. If it is necessary to adjust existing laws or administrative regulations, it shall be handled in accordance with legal procedures. Major matters shall be reported to the Party Central Committee and the State Council in a timely manner.