The 33 Countries Will Enjoy Zero Tariffs On Leather And Other Commodity Exports To China.

The Ministry of Finance issued a news report that the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council decided that since July 1, 2010, zero tariff has been imposed on 4762 items of tax items originally exported from 33 least developed countries such as Ethiopia, which have completed the exchange of notes with China, accounting for 60% of the total tariff items. At this point, China will become one of the developing countries with the largest market opening to the least developed countries.

According to the Ministry of finance, on the basis of the integration of the original zero tariff treatment, the 4762 list of zero tariff commodity tax items has further increased some of the commodities that the least developed countries have actual export volume or potential export capacity in recent years, including poultry, livestock, aquatic products, unprocessed or processed agricultural products, minerals, daily necessities, plastic products, leather, wood, textiles, clothing, finished products, glass products, steel and their products, mechanical and electrical products, furniture and so on. According to the statistics of trade volume in 2008, zero tariff commodities of the above 4762 tax items accounted for 98.2% of the least developed countries' exports to China.

In the future, our country will continue to expand the scope of benefits according to the opinions and suggestions of the countries concerned and combine the implementation effect of the existing measures, and finally achieve zero tariff to cover 95% of the total tariff items.

The Ministry of Finance believes that with the full implementation of the zero tariff measures, many commodities in the least developed countries will enter the Chinese market with zero tariff, which will bring benefits to the people of the least developed countries, and will also help reduce the import cost of our enterprises, widen the channels of China's imports, promote the healthy development of bilateral trade, and further strengthen the friendly relations between China and the least developed countries.

Since 2001, China has successively granted zero tariff treatment to some of the 41 least developed countries, which has been expanding the scope of commodities. Up to now, China has given zero tariff treatment to about 1000 items of tax items of the least developed countries respectively, covering the vast majority of commodities exported to China by these countries. The implementation of zero tariff measures also promoted the export of these countries to China. Data show that in 2008, China absorbed 23% of the total export volume of the least developed countries and became the largest export market for the least developed countries.