Release date: November 2, 2019 source: People's daily client

The second China International Import Expo will soon open in Shanghai. A year ago, President Xi Jinping made a solemn promise to announce further a series of pragmatic measures in the keynote speech of the opening ceremony of the first fair. Over the past year, these measures have been solidly implemented and effectively promoted. A more open, stable and promising Chinese market is emerging.

[commitment 1]

China will support the pilot free trade zone to deepen reform and innovation, continue to deepen differential exploration, increase stress testing, and play the role of the pilot Free Trade Zone in reform and opening up.

[cash]

Shortly after the closing of the first China International Fair, the State Council immediately printed and distributed the notice on measures to support the pilot Free Trade Zone in deepening reform and innovation. Since 2018, Hainan pilot free trade zone construction project has successively held six batches of centralized commencement and signing activities.

At the end of June this year, the Special Administrative Measures for foreign investment access in the pilot free trade zone (negative list) (2019 version) was released, and the items in the negative list of foreign investment access in the pilot free trade zone were reduced from 45 to 37.

In August, a new batch of pilot free trade zones were set up in six provinces and regions of Shandong, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Hebei, Yunnan and Heilongjiang.

In October, the 14th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress voted and decided that six laws and regulations would be temporarily adjusted, applied and optimized in the pilot free trade zone.

[commitment 2]

China will further reduce tariffs, improve the level of customs clearance facilitation, cut the institutional cost of import links, and accelerate the development of new formats and new models such as cross-border e-commerce.

[cash]

In 2018, China's average tariff rate fell from 9.8% to 7.5%. Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese government has repeatedly adjusted the import tax rate, reduced the value-added tax on the import of drugs with rare diseases, adjusted the import tax on the bank post tax, and expanded the scope of goods taxed at a lower tax rate.

China has launched a series of practical measures to simplify customs clearance process, simplify import and export regulatory documents and optimize port business environment. As of May of this year, the overall clearance time of import and export has achieved the goal of reducing by half compared with 2017, and the cost of clearance has been significantly reduced.

[commitment 3]

China will protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign-funded enterprises, resolutely punish violations of the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors, especially violations of intellectual property rights, improve the quality and efficiency of intellectual property review, introduce a punitive compensation system, and significantly increase the cost of violations.

[cash]

On January 1 this year, the intellectual property court of the Supreme People's court was established. In January this year, the e-commerce law came into effect, making comprehensive and perfect provisions for the protection of intellectual property rights. In March of this year, the revised regulations on patent agency came into effect, clearly defining the legal liability of "black agency". In April this year, China revised its trademark law and anti unfair competition law, and increased penalties for trademark infringement and trade secret infringement.

The revision of the patent law has been accelerated and is expected to be completed within this year.

[commitment 4]
China will speed up the introduction of foreign investment laws and regulations, improve an open and transparent legal system for foreign investment, and comprehensively and thoroughly implement the management system of national treatment plus negative list before entry.

[cash]
In March this year, the law of the people's Republic of China on foreign investment was voted through to further strengthen the protection of foreign investment; in October, China promulgated the regulations on optimizing the business environment, establishing the basic system and norms of business environment that treat all kinds of market entities, such as domestic and foreign-funded enterprises, equally.

By the end of 2018, the national unified negative list system of market access was fully implemented. At the end of June, China released the 2019 version of the negative list of foreign investment access, which was reduced from 48 items to 40 items on the basis of a sharp reduction last year.

[commitment 5]
China is steadily expanding the opening up of the financial industry, continuously promoting the opening up of the service industry, deepening the opening up of the agriculture, mining and manufacturing industries, accelerating the opening up process in the fields of telecommunications, education, medical care and culture, especially in the fields of education and medical care, where foreign investors are concerned and there is a large gap in the domestic market, the restrictions on foreign shares will also be relaxed.

[cash]
At the end of June this year, China released the 2019 catalogue of industries to encourage foreign investment, promoting foreign investment in modern agriculture, advanced manufacturing, high and new technology, energy conservation and environmental protection, modern service industry and other fields.

In July, the State Council launched another 11 policies and measures to further open the financial industry to the outside world, easing the restrictions on the development of relevant overseas institutions in China from banks, insurance, securities companies, funds, futures, credit rating and other fields.

In October, the newly revised regulations on the administration of foreign insurance companies and regulations on the administration of foreign banks further relaxed the access conditions for foreign banks and insurance companies. In October, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) released a message that it will lift the restrictions on foreign shares ratio of futures companies from January 1, 2020. At present, the market access of China's banking, securities and insurance industry has been greatly liberalized, and the restrictions on the ratio of foreign shares will be fully liberalized next year.