State Council to Deploy Policies to Improve Import and Export of Consumer Goods

On April 28 Chinese Premier Li Keqiang chaired an executive meeting of the State Council, main content of the meeting includes, the deployment and improvement of policies on the import and export of consumer goods, abundance of domestic consumer shopping choices; acceleration of oil products quality upgrading to promote air pollution control and technological upgrading of enterprises; implement of the rare earth tungsten and molybdenum resource tax reform to rationalize the relationship between resources and tax.

The meeting held that the expansion of domestic consumer demand could promote economy growth and structural adjustment. In order to meet the consumption upgrading requirements, the government will improve the tax adjustment policies to create a fair competitive environment for import and export, to increase the imported consumer goods which masses have strong willingness to buy, the government will also promote exports of goods with international competitiveness, thus expanding domestic demand and employment, promoting the domestic industry towards high-end level. 

The meeting confirmed that the relevant departments should come up with concrete programs based on scientific assessment, first, regarding some foreign consumer goods for which the consumers have a large demand, the government will carry out pilots, reduce tariffs, and expand the scope of the tax reduction goods before the end of June this year. Second, the government will improve the consumption tax policy of the clothing, cosmetics and other consumer goods, coordinate and adjust the tax base, tax rate and links. Third, the duty-free stores will be increased, the duty-free varieties will be expanded, the amount of the tax-free shopping will be increased, thus it would be more convenient for Chinese consumers to buy foreign products in China. Fourth, the government will further promote the establishment of passenger shopping clearance and tax facilitation, formulate inspection and quarantine policies to promote the development of the cross-border e-commerce and clean up unreasonable charges during importing. Five is to accelerate the Chinese brand promotion projects, support the development of the offline store and achieve online and offline interaction.  (www.chinainout.com)