The State Council held an executive meeting on June 13, 2018, deciding to further expand imports to drive economic upgrade and balance China's trade structure.
The government will support import of products involving people's livelihood, including daily necessities, medicines, rehabilitation and elderly care facilities, implement measures to reduce import tax on certain commodities; make a major push to develop emerging service trade and boost imports of production-related services like R&D, logistics, consulting, energy conservation and environmental protection; improve policies on duty-free stores and expand imports of duty-free goods, and more technical equipment conducive to economic transformation will also be imported.
China will optimize the process of import customs clearance and seek international mutual recognition of Authorized Economic Operators to facilitate import. Unreasonable management measures and fees during the import process will be cleared, and the country will step up the building of a credit system for foreign trade and improve intellectual property protection.