Free trade zone refers to a duty-free zone within a country, which is protected by customs and has no trade restrictions. It is the most open form in the world economic free zone, and its basic characteristics can be summarized as "national behavior, domestic customs clearance, outstanding functions and high freedom". Free trade zone is a breakthrough in tariffs, import and export licenses and quotas, and it is an area where special customs administration is implemented. In fact, it is a tariff separation zone adopting the free port policy.
Domestic bonded areas need to "connect" with the international community. Foreign special development zones and economic zones have various names: bonded warehouse zone, free zone, foreign trade zone, export processing zone, free trade zone and free port zone, but they all have the names of bonded zones. Bonded area is a term with China characteristics created by China himself. It is generally expressed as "free trade zone", abbreviated as FTZ, and translated back into Chinese as "free trade zone". Some people also use the literal translation of "bonded area". However, no matter what foreign name is used, it usually refers to the open areas outside the customs that are similar to international export processing zones and free trade zones. Customs duties are free in the bonded area, and overseas personnel, goods and funds are free to enter and leave the bonded area. However, products from non-bonded areas are regarded as exports when they enter bonded areas, and products from bonded areas are regarded as imports when they enter non-bonded areas. The bonded area shall be fully enclosed and isolated, and complete isolation facilities shall be set up. But as Jack North said, "China's bonded zone is not a free trade zone in the full sense. For example, trading enterprises that invest and register in the region have no export rights and cannot be registered in the customs. Therefore, when trading enterprises buy goods from abroad, there will be multiple agency problems, which will increase the transaction costs of enterprises in the region. Many foreign trade enterprises in bonded areas are in trouble because this problem has not been solved well. " He further pointed out that although all bonded areas in China have taken some measures, the results are not great. However, the complicated and difficult export tax refund procedures are not conducive to the export processing enterprises to purchase domestic raw materials, which makes the original intention of the establishment of the bonded area-expanding exports not well realized, and its stimulating effect on China's economy is also very limited at present. Internationally, the regional feature of a free trade zone is recognized as "domestic customs clearance", that is, "it refers to a part of a country's territory, and any goods imported in this part of the territory are considered to be outside the customs clearance in terms of import duties and other taxes, and are exempted from the usual customs supervision system." (Kyoto Convention, Annex on Free Zones (F. 1)) However, China's bonded zones are largely regarded as "domestic customs" areas. For example, enterprises in the region are not allowed to open foreign exchange accounts outside the region; Foreign-funded enterprises in the area shall not set up branches outside the area; More and more departments are involved in the bonded area, and the management of the bonded area is becoming stricter, ignoring that the bonded area is an advanced experimental area for reform and opening up, and simply applying the management methods suitable for non-bonded areas. Especially since September 1998, China's state administration of foreign exchange has made great adjustments to the foreign exchange management policies in the bonded area, which has caused difficulties for enterprises in the bonded area in terms of import payment and export settlement, and affected the normal operation of the bonded area. Gabriela Armstrong inspected the management of the China 15 Bonded Zone. After contacting some officials of the bonded zones, she pointed out in particular that there is a dual management problem between the goods supervision management and the import and export zone management currently adopted in China, and the two inspections have affected the customs clearance efficiency. Compared with foreign free trade zones, China's 15 Free Trade Zone has not only necessary administrative departments, but also many organizations unrelated to the business of the Free Trade Zone. Moreover, due to the interests of the departments, the administrative organs in the bonded area cannot be "immune" on some issues in the area and have to obey the departments outside the area. This is contrary to the principle of "small government" under the free trade system, and it is also very different from the internationally accepted bonded area practice. Most of the more mature free trade zones in the world are connected with ports, and generally implement integrated port management, with ports as the carrier. Because the functions of entrepot trade, export processing, warehousing and international trade in the bonded area need to rely on port functions. Only by implementing the integrated operation of the port area and enhancing the ability of gathering and spreading goods, funds and information can the functions of the bonded area be brought into full play, and the role of the bonded area in driving and radiating can be better brought into play. China's bonded area is adjacent to the port, but does not include the port. This has become a "bottleneck" for the further development of the functions of the bonded area. Poor access to goods, cumbersome and repetitive management, increased costs, difficult development of functions and economic activity. The integration of district and port will inevitably apply the policy and management of bonded area to port operation, which will inevitably improve the openness and freedom of port and promote the development of port-facing industry. For example, port operations, transportation, warehousing, international trade, export processing, packaging, import and export finance and other port-related industries. The integration of district and port is also the need to reduce costs and improve work efficiency. In addition, the domestic bonded area still lacks national laws to regulate its operation. Because there is no unified national laws and regulations, all localities have successively introduced their own local laws and regulations. In the national 15 bonded zone, 10 has its own local regulations or local government documents, but the contents of the regulations vary from place to place, even from district to district. For example, three bonded zones in Shenzhen are implementing three different policies. Multi-head administration and multi-head management are naturally harmful to the coordinated development of bonded areas. The bonded area will exist for a long time. Michael Gillis believes that the most prominent advantages of the free trade zone are freedom, convenience, accessibility and the management mode of "first-line liberalization, second-line management and regional freedom". It is the product of trade liberalization and will exist for a long time with the deepening of global economic integration. According to incomplete statistics, there have been more than 1200 free trade zones in the world since the birth of the first free trade zone in the world 450 years ago. The country with the largest number of free trade zones in the world is the United States, and the most developed country in the world has 655 free trade zones. Now we are sparing no effort to promote the establishment of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which is the largest free trade area in the world. East Asian countries and regions have been actively developing export-oriented economies in recent decades, so the free trade zone in this region is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The main advantage of the free trade zone lies in the high efficiency of customs clearance, so some countries do not even have customs in the free trade zone. Although the products of FTZ can enter the local market after paying taxes, many foreign companies have to settle in FTZ due to the restriction of the principle of origin. This shows that free trade zones can also help attract foreign direct investment and introduce advanced technology and management methods. Although the world economic integration is deepening, the conflict of national and ethnic interests caused by the distribution of interests is also escalating. The frequent trade wars in recent years are proof of this. This makes it impossible for the global economy to achieve "great harmony" in one or two years, one or two decades or even 100 years, and tariff barriers between countries will not be abolished. Take the EU as an example, the tariffs in the region have not been reduced to zero, and the tariffs are higher when dealing with economic entities outside the region. It can be seen that the bonded area still has long-term necessity and strong vitality. Donald H.Perkins said: "After China's entry into WTO, China's tariff level will definitely operate according to the requirements of the WTO, but this is a gradual process, which will take some time, and this buffer period will provide conditions for the existence and development of the bonded area. Moreover, the function of the bonded area will be different with the economic development level of the bonded area and the overall development goals undertaken on this basis. Most of the early pilot bonded areas in China undertook bonded and warehousing business, and entrepot trade and processing trade continued to develop with the growth of bonded areas. From the practice at home and abroad, the bonded area has different functions in different periods. Therefore, there is no need to worry that the free trade zone will die within a few decades. " Dwight R.Snodgras added: "The recent collision between Chinese and American military aircraft has caused sudden tension between China and the United States, and the tough policy pursued by the Bush administration of the United States has made it possible for China to strengthen the development of the bonded area in the future; On the one hand, reduce concessions to the United States in exchange for the support of the United States' accession to the WTO. "After China's accession to the WTO, where will the domestic bonded areas go? Professor Dominick Williamson and Harper Collins believe that if China's bonded areas want to open up a new situation and start a second venture, they must first make an accurate qualitative positioning. We must refer to the relevant principles formulated by WTO, position the development model as a free trade zone operating in accordance with international practices, and change its nature from "domestic customs clearance" to "domestic customs clearance". Since the tariff difference between China and the bonded area will be greatly reduced after China's entry into the WTO, he thinks it is unnecessary to conduct general trade in the area in the future. In the future, free trade zone should be the main body, processing trade (manufacturing center) and logistics distribution (logistics center) as the two wings, and finance (foreign exchange, offshore finance), legal services and transportation services as the three supporting systems. In terms of specific measures, the bonded area should first transform from "inside the customs" to "outside the customs" and implement the supervision mode of "first-line liberalization, second-line management and freedom in the area"; The real filing system shall be implemented for the circulation of goods between the bonded area and overseas; The manual management of goods by customs is transformed into the account book management of enterprises. Goods and articles entering the bonded area from the non-bonded area are regarded as customs clearance and will be subject to export tax rebate. Enterprises in the bonded area can act as "first-line" and "second-line" import and export agents. In addition, it is necessary to further promote the integrated management system of the port area, improve the special passage from the terminal to the bonded area, and form a three-dimensional multimodal transport system by land, sea and air; In terms of foreign exchange, it is necessary to deepen the reform of the financial system in the region and implement the policy of free currency exchange under the current account in the region. Only through the above measures, with the three supporting systems and the platform of rapid customs clearance, rapid operation and e-commerce, can the bonded area basically achieve the goal of a free trade zone in 2005, become a distribution center for people, goods, materials and information in the bonded area, and become a bright spot to promote regional economic development. John Salvato pointed out that the geographical distribution of China's bonded areas is unreasonable. There are too many bonded zones in some places, including 6 in Guangdong and 3 in Shenzhen. Some places are blank, such as Guangxi, which has good ports such as Beihai and Fangcheng, but failed to set up a bonded zone. In the future, the existing bonded areas should be adjusted and reduced according to their regions and functions, and some of them can be expanded into comprehensive bonded areas through classification to bring into play economies of scale. China 15 Bonded Zone cannot develop into a free port or a free trade zone at the same time. For some bonded areas with good foundation, high degree of openness, and most of the goods and services meet the tax exemption conditions, we should consider implementing the free port policy first, and promote the development to free ports by stages and categories.