Big news! Hainan Island is closed: zero-tax goods, taxation catalog... All you want to know is here!

On July 23, the State Information Office introduced the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port. A relevant official from the National Development and Reform Commission said that the specific time for the Hainan Free Trade Port to be closed will be on December 18, 2025 with the approval of the Party Central Committee. The island-wide closure operation is a landmark project for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, an important measure to further expand opening up, and is of milestone significance.

What is a closure?

The closure of the customs refers to the construction of Hainan Island into a special area for customs supervision ，to implement a liberalization and facilitation policy system with the basic characteristics of 'the first line' liberalization, the second line' control, and the island's freedom .

'First Line' liberalization ，means using Hainan Free Trade Port and other countries and regions outside China as the 'First Line' to implement a series of free and convenient entry and exit measures;

'Second Line' control means to use the Hainan Free Trade Port and the Mainland as the 'Second Line' and implement precise management for the content that is relaxed in the 'First Line';

Freedom on the island means that in the Hainan Free Trade Port, various factors can be relatively freely circulated.

The closure of the pass is to further expand opening up. After the closure of the pass, Hainan’s connection with the international community will be more convenient. This is of great significance to accelerating the gathering of high-quality factors in attracting the global concentration of high-quality factors, promoting the high-quality development of the Hainan Free Trade Port, and exploring the way for national reform and opening up.

What are the current closure policies?

First, implement more preferential goods, 'zero tariffs' policies, 。'front-line' imports, 'zero tariffs' commodity tax items, will be increased from 21% to 74%. The import taxes can be circulated between the entities enjoying benefits on the island, and those with processing value-added 30% can be sold to the mainland without tariffs.

The second is to implement more relaxed trade management measures 。in the 'front line' import direction, and make open arrangements for some existing prohibited and restricted imported goods in the country.

Third, more convenient access measures will be implemented 。with the existing 8 open ports on the island as 'first-line' ports, and imported goods that meet the conditions will be released; 10 'second-line ports' including Haikou New Hai Port and Haikou South Port will be set up to take a variety of convenient access measures for innovation in goods entering the mainland.

Fourth, implement a more efficient and accurate regulatory model 。to implement low-intervention and high-efficiency precise supervision of 'zero tariffs' goods, relax trade management measures, etc., to ensure the smooth implementation of various open policies. The relevant policy documents will be announced to the public later and will come into effect on the day the island is closed.

Hainan Provincial Party Secretary Feng Fei said that the policy of closure is ready. Policies and supporting documents such as import taxed goods catalog, prohibited and restricted list, processing value-added domestic sales exemption and other tariffs have been formulated. The hardware and software conditions have been fully completed. The hardware facilities for sealing the customs have passed the national acceptance, and information systems such as international trade 'single window' and customs smart supervision platform have also been built. In terms of stress test drills, we are moving forward in a long way. The 'full process, full factor, full coverage, large sample, practical' stress tests have been strengthened, and the ability to 'control' is significantly enhanced.

From 'these zero tariffs' to 'there are zero tariffs except these'

'Zero tariffs' is one of the main features of Hainan Free Trade Port policy and system system. Liao Min, Vice Minister of Finance, said at a press conference held by the State Information Office on July 23 that compared with the pre-closure policy, the coverage of 'zero tariffs' has significantly increased. There are currently 3 imported goods lists with a total of about 1,900 tax items. After the island-wide customs clearance operation, imports 'zero tariffs' goods will be managed negatively, and the previous 'zero tariffs' goods will be replaced with the import taxed product catalog. 'Zero tariffs'The scope of goods has been expanded to about 6,600 tax items, accounting for 74% of all commodity tax items, an increase of nearly 53 percentage points from before the closure of the customs, significantly improving the level of opening up. The scope of the benefits is significantly expanded. After the island is closed down, the benefits will basically cover all types of enterprises, institutions, private non-enterprise units, etc. that have actual import needs on the island.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation issued a notice on the catalog of import taxable goods in Hainan Free Trade Port. The catalog of import taxable goods in Hainan Free Trade Port includes the following goods:

(1) See attachment for goods on the list of imported taxed goods.

(II) Goods that implement trade relief measures.

Click to download: List of import taxable goods.pdf

According to the requirements of the notice, from the date of the closure of Hainan Free Trade Port, Hainan Free Trade Port will only impose taxes on the import of goods on the above import taxed goods list and goods that implement trade relief measures . After a comprehensive assessment and meeting the conditions, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation, in conjunction with relevant departments, in combination with relevant tax system reforms, actual needs and regulatory conditions in Hainan Province, will promptly adjust the catalog of imported taxable goods in a timely manner , etc.。

Clearer management boundaries

At noon today, the Ministry of Commerce issued the Ministry of Commerce Announcement No. 43 of 2025 to announce the 'List of Banned and Restricted Import and Export of Goods and Items in Hainan Free Trade Port'.

Click to download: List of prohibited and restricted import and export goods and items in Hainan Free Trade Port.pdf

The list comprehensively and systematically lists the scope of import and export goods and items that the country has implemented prohibited and restricted management measures for the first time, and the business entities can clearly and conveniently understand the management boundaries. The list has cancelled the import licenses for old mechanical and electrical products with 60 commodity codes, covering about 80% of old mechanical and electrical products included in the import license management, which can basically meet the production and self-use needs of Hainan enterprises; based on the current relevant policies of the free trade pilot zone and comprehensive bonded zone, 38 product coded products are allowed to carry out bonded maintenance in Hainan Free Trade Port, achieving the highest level of openness in the country in the field of bonded maintenance.