Analysis On The Changes And Effects Of China's Import Tariff Policy On Consumer Goods

In recent years,with the rapid growth of China's economy,residents' consumption structure has been gradually optimized.People are constantly pursuing higher quality of life,and the demand for imported consumer goods is increasing.Under the pressure of the current global tax reduction wave,consumer goods will become an important area for the adjustment of China's tariff policy in the future.Since 2015,in order to meet the needs of household consumption upgrades and to rationally increase the import of general consumer goods closely related to people's lives,China has successively lowered the provisional tariffs on imports of some clothing,bags,shoes,specialty foods and pharmaceuticals.With four independent tax reductions in one year,2018 was an important year for the adjustment of the tariff policy for consumer goods.Three tax reductions were targeted at the consumer goods sector,which reducted the MFN tariff rate directly and covered the most extensive tax reduction range,and the largest tax rate drop.In this context,this paper studies the import tariff policy of consumer goods,through the combing of the import tariff policy of consumer goods since the reform and opening up,and selecting the import tariff data and the trade data of major consumer goods from 1992 to 2019.With the empirical analysis of the industrial protection effect and the social welfare effect,the feasible adjustment direction of China's consumer goods import tariff policy is obtained.First,starting with the "Import and Export Tariff of the People's Republic of China" from 1951 to 2018,we sorts out and analyzis the tariff levels of consumer goods and the adjustment of consumer goods tariff policies.It is concluded that China's consumer goods are maintaining a protection tariff policy,and the average tax rate is higher than the total tariff level in order to protect the domestic industry.The adjustment of tariff policy for consumer goods in 2018 is a transformation,which indicates that the focus of policy objectives is reducing social welfare losses,optimizing resource allocation,and meeting the growing material and cultural needs of the people instead of protecting domestic industries and maintaining employment levels.Second,we calculate and analyze the nominal tax rate and effective protection rate of consumer goods.According to the analysis,the current nominal tax rate and effective protection rate of imported consumer goods in China are higher than their upstream products,and the effective protection rate is higher than the nominal tax rate,which indicates that the tax rate structure is reasonable and can better protect the domestic consumer goods industry.However,excessive protection will lead to strong overseas shopping and crazy purchasing,which will not only harm the interests of national industries,but also lose a lot of tax revenue.Therefore,it is necessary to reduce the tariff rate of imported consumer goods in a timely manner for consumer goods industry developing healthily and continuously.Third,we measure the welfare income after the tax reduction of imported consumer goods.The calculation results show that lowering the import tariff rate of consumer goods can obtain higher welfare benefits.The lager the elasticity of demand for consumer goods,the more consumers' welfare will increase as the tax rate drops.Therefore,the nature of consumer goods should be taken into account when we choose some consumer goods that are subject to tariff reduction in order to make the tax reduction effect more obvious.Finally,we propose the adjustment direction of the import tariff policy for consumer goods.In the aspect of the tax rate structure,the tax rate of consumer goods can be reduced to four grades: 12%,9%,6%,3%,0%;In the aspect of the tax rate level,consumer goods that are considered to have high import demand elasticity and rich industrial competitive advantages should be the primary target of tariff concessions,and the average tax rate can be reduced to 7% or even 6%;In terms of tax coordination,due to the change of policy objectives,the current development trend of import tariffs and value-added tax on consumer goods is declining the tax rate level and reducing the tax rate grades.In order to achieve the dual goals of effective protection and stable fiscal revenue,while reducing the efficiency loss of taxation and increasing the national welfare,it is necessary to coordinate tariffs with the policy design of valueadded tax and consumption tax.In addition to the coordination of the tax system itself,it is also possible to explore the cooperation between the customs and the tax authorities to form a collection management system for “great comprehensive taxation”.