South China’s island province of Hainan has rolled out a new policy to optimize the business environment, featuring 25 measures designed to facilitate cross-border trade and promote high level development of foreign trade in the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP).

Aerial view of Haikou Port in China's Hainan Province. (Photo: Hainan Daily)

The new policy aims to reduce costs, increase speed, and raise the efficiency of Hainan’s foreign trade in ‘smart, quantifiable, and convenient’ ways. The measures are a continuation of six major existing policies: the ‘zero tariff list’ will be expanded and made more efficient, larger stress tests of FTP customs closures will be held, the brand name effect of the Hainan Island departure duty free policy will be expanded, development of the bonded maintenance & remanufacturing industry will be promoted, cross-border e-commerce support service capabilities will be improved, and the vehicle trade pilot policy will be more broadly implemented.

The new ‘smart’ policy includes the following measures. The development of the Hainan FTP smart customs supervision system and customs closure digitization projects are to be accelerated. The enterprise resource planning (ERP) online platform will perform rapid tax reduction & exemption reviews. Electronic certificates are to be made ‘smarter’ through online processing of certificate renewal, unlocking, and card replacement services. International travel health services will be improved by setting up an online service platform for health exams and vaccine appointments for travelers.

The new policy quantifies time limits for procedures of great concern for companies such as document review, port inspection, quarantine approval, and sample inspection. For example, customs inspection operations for port inspection declarations shall not exceed four hours, and customs clearance procedures for customs declarations with normal inspection results shall not exceed one hour. Inspections for fresh and perishable agricultural and food products will be prioritized. Quarantine approval time for imported animals, plants, and related products is reduced from seven to only one working day.

According to the director of Haikou Customs, ‘service packages’ for companies have been further upgraded. Third party trust will be deepened for customs inspections. In principle, Haikou Customs will no longer test samples for 267 types of goods with inspection reports issued by legally established testing agencies. Customs credit management will be strengthened, and the sampling rate of import and export goods by companies holding AEO advanced certification will be reduced under the premise of controllable risks. Communication between Haikou Customs and companies is to be deepened, ensuring that 100% of issues raised by companies are responded to within 48 hours, and 100% of matters within the scope of Haikou Customs are resolved within the promised time limit.