China's Hainan Free Trade Port officially launched its island-wide customs closure starting from the 18th. Following the closure, a series of customs policies and supporting documents—such as the list of taxable imported goods, goods circulation tax policies, prohibition and restriction list, duty-free policies for domestically sold processed goods, and customs supervision measures—will be implemented simultaneously. Experts analyze that in the long run, after the closure, international medical and educational resources will be accelerated into place, and industrial agglomeration will create a large number of jobs in Hainan.
Zero-tariff is one of the main features of Hainan Free Trade Port's policy and institutional system. According to the policy arrangements, after the closure the zero-tariff goods list will increase significantly from over 1,900 items to 6,637 items, covering 74% of product categories such as cosmetics, home appliances, and health products—an increase of 53% compared to before the closure. After the closure, the development of public service facilities such as international schools, high-level hospitals, and cultural stations will accelerate, simultaneously improving the city's livability and level of internationalization. Local residents will be able to enjoy international services without leaving the island, while also attracting more domestic and international talent to work, study, and live in the area.
With the zero-tariff policy widely covering enterprises, coupled with preferential tax rates of 15% for corporate income tax and personal income tax, Hainan is attracting cutting-edge industries such as biomedicine and the digital economy to agglomerate at an accelerated pace. In addition, with the development of duty-free shopping, international tourism, cross-border e-commerce and other industries, demand for jobs in retail, logistics, hotels, catering and other service industries will continue to grow. Currently, Hainan has implemented policies expanding visa-free entries for people from 59 countries, visa-free entry for foreign tour groups arriving by cruise ship, 144-hour visa-free entry to Hainan for foreign tour groups from Hong Kong and Macau, as well as 240-hour visa-free transit for foreigners. Combined with nationwide visa-free policies, people from a total of 86 countries can enter Hainan individually under visa-free arrangements.