Adjustment of tariffs signals further opening-up to world

The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, China's Cabinet, recently said the country has decided to adjust its tariff plan for 2023 and expand the number of tariff items in line with the need for industrial development and technical advancement.

The country began imposing a provisional import tax rate lower than the "most-favored nation" tariff rate on 1,020 items on Jan 1, also reducing tariffs to zero on ingredients of some anti-cancer and anti-COVID drugs. It also reduced the "most-favored nation" tax rate on 62 types of information technology products, according to a statement issued by the commission on Thursday.

China's overall tariff level will dip from 7.4 percent to 7.3 percent. To promote high-level opening-up, the country must not only deepen the synergy of domestic rules, regulations, standards with international ones, but also make good use of the traditional tariff tool.

The tariff adjustment plan also shows China matching words with action in its plan to open up wider to the outside world. Despite major worldwide changes, and the challenges of protectionism and ever fiercer decoupling attempts, China will unswervingly open up wider to the outside world, and promote high-level opening-up. The latest tariff adjustment is a routine action, but the lower tariff rates China is expected to impose on more imported goods in the next few years will benefit more countries and groups.

Since joining the World Trade Organization, China's tariff level has been decreasing. By 2010, the average tariff rate was down to 9.8 percent, fulfilling the tariff reduction commitments it made upon its accession to the WTO. By 2023, the country's average tariff will fall to 7.3 percent, a drop of 2.5 percentage points in the past 13 years.

It is also going to be a year since the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership formally took effect, and as relevant member states implement relevant provisions, China will also further increase the number of countries on whose commodities it will apply the agreed tax rate. Such moves will help expand a global network of high-standard free trade areas and contribute to the construction of an open world economy.