海南自由贸易港间接税优惠的WTO合规性审视

HFTP Indirect Tax Preferences:An Examination of Their Conformity with the WTO

建立对标世界最高开放形态的海南自由贸易港,是我国扩大开放的重大战略。为此,相关规定为海南自由贸易港货物贸易提供了多种税收优惠,但WTO《补贴与反补贴协定》将政府放弃应征收的收入纳入补贴,从而为此类税收优惠埋下了WTO合规隐患。在自贸港间接税优惠中,自贸港企业“两头在外”生产加工所用原辅料免税,貌似与WTO《补贴与反补贴协定》禁止的出口补贴相契合,但因符合该协定第1项注释规定的补贴例外,并不构成补贴。然而,由于生产设备作为资本货物不符合该项补贴例外,故自贸港企业自用生产设备进口免税易被认定为补贴。对此,海南应行使自贸港法规制定权,建立适用于自贸港的税制和税率,以避免专向性补贴。此外,进口料件加工增值内销免征关税,与《中国加入WTO议定书》的内容相悖,亦易被认定为进口替代补贴。欲避免之,需要变自贸港增值比例要求为自贸港原产地要求,并进行配套改革。

The establishment of Hainan Free Trade Port(HFTP)targeting at the highest open level in the world is a significant strategy of China.For the sake of this,relevant rules provide various tax preferences for trade of goods in HFTP,but SCM Agreement takes the government revenue otherwise due foregone as subsidy,causing concerns for the international legitimacy of these preferences.Among HFTP indirect tax preferences,the exemption of duties and taxes for the inputs consumed in the goods production of HFTP enterprises under the mode of importing supplies and then exporting products,though similar to the export subsidy prohibited by SCM,constitutes the subsidy exception contained in the 1st footnote of SCM.But production equipments as capital goods fail to meet subsidy exception in the above footnote,thus the exemption of duties and taxes for import of production equipment used by HFTP enterprises are susceptible to a subsidy.Hainan should exercise the legislative power for HFTP regulations to establish the HFTP duty and tax to prevent the measures from becoming specific subsidy.In addition,the exemption of duties for imported inputs in the products with value added above certain threshold in Hainan runs counter to the provisions in the Protocol on China’s Accession to the WTO and is susceptible to import substitution subsidy.The value added requirement should be replaced with the rule of origin combined with supporting reforms to avoid the breach.