President Xi: China to cut auto import tariff

China will soon relax the restrictions on the ownership of joint ventures, especially in auto industry, President Xi Jinping said at the Boao Forum for Asia on Tuesday. Besides, China will lower the tariff, to a certain extent, in auto import and other products import.

President Xi stated that the restrictions on the JV ownership in manufacturing area have been softened basically, while a few industries like automobile, shipbuilding and aircraft have still been confined. The next step is to ease the JV ownership restriction in more fields as soon as possible, especially auto industry, who have already owned the condition “to be opened”.

As early as April 2017, relevant departments in China jointly issued the Plan for the Middle and Long-term Development of the Automobile Industry that put forward the goal to enter the ranks of auto powers in the world through 10-year endeavors.

According to the Plan, China will improve the management system of domestic and foreign investments and relax the restrictions on auto JV ownership in an orderly manner. This was the first time that China’s government explicitly mentioned to ease auto JV ownership restriction. Meanwhile, the Plan also refers that new energy vehicle (NEV) and intelligent-connected vehicle (ICV) will become China’s highlights to make breakthroughs. The government will help the auto industry carry out its transformation and upgrading through building a sound innovation system and enhancing the ability of tackling the core technology difficulties.

President Xi pointed out that China ought to actively increase imports to boost domestic demands that are crucial to meet people’s demands for a better life. The extended imports will be conducted for the purpose of balanced payment on current account rather than searching for trade surplus. Besides, he showed that China will significantly decrease auto import tariffs and speed up the process of joining WTO’s Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). Meanwhile, President Xi hopes that developed countries stop setting man-made limits on the trade of reasonable high-tech products and ease the high-tech product export control against China.