Recently, the General Office of the State Council has issued the Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for Foreign Investment Access to Pilot Free Trade Zones (FTZs) (2017 Edition), effective from July 10, 2017.
Compared to its previous edition, the latest negative list covering existing 11 FTZs cancels 10 entries and 27 measures. A total of six entries are removed from the latest negative list, including the manufacturing of railway transportation equipment, pharmaceutical manufacturing, road transportation, insurance business, accounting audit, and other commercial services. Meanwhile, with another four entries further eliminated for integration, the negative list is now divided into 15 categories with 40 entries and 95 special administrative measures. Those special administrative measures removed from the new negative list mainly relate to the manufacturing industry and the service sector. According to the new negative list, the special administrative measure that "new all-electric battery passenger vehicle manufacturing enterprises must have their own product brands and proprietary intellectual property rights as well as authorized relevant patents for invention" and others are cancelled for the manufacturing industry; and another special administrative measure that "a foreign bank that is permitted to operate the RMB business must meet the minimum requirements on the opening time" and others no longer apply to the service sector.