Resident Zero-Tariff Policy Launches as Spring Festival Duty-Free Sales Post Strong Holiday Growth.

The primary policy development in February was the launch of a new zero-tariff imported consumer goods policy for eligible Hainan FTP residents and the opening of the island’s first five daily-goods duty-free stores, while Spring Festival customs data showed strong year-on-year growth in offshore duty-free sales and reported zero-tariff and processing-trade activity during the holiday period.

TRADE HIGHLIGHTS

Resident Zero-Tariff Consumer Goods Policy Announced (February 4–5)

In a joint notice dated February 4 and publicly announced on February 5–6, 2026, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Taxation Administration introduced a new zero-tariff policy on imported daily consumer goods for eligible Hainan FTP residents, effective upon promulgation. Eligible residents, Chinese citizens holding a Hainan identity card, Hainan residence permit, or Hainan social security card, as well as overseas personnel working and residing in Hainan with valid residence permits, receive an annual duty-free shopping quota of ¥10,000 (1万元), with no limit on purchase frequency.

The policy exempts import duties as well as VAT and consumption tax at the import and domestic stages, on eligible goods purchased at designated qualified duty-free stores, within the quota and product-list limits. Eligible goods fall within designated food and beverage, daily chemical products, household, and maternal-and-child categories, as defined in the official positive list.

📎 Source: State Taxation Administration policy database (财关税【2026】6号) (2026-02-04/05) https://fgk.chinatax.gov.cn/zcfgk/c102416/c5247571/content.html   📎 Parallel source: State Council / gov.cn (English) (2026-02-05) https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202602/05/content_WS6984420bc6d00ca5f9a08ecf.html

First Five Resident Daily-Goods Duty-Free Stores Opened (February 11)

Following a press conference on February 6, Hainan’s first batch of five island-resident daily consumer goods duty-free stores (日用消费品免税店) opened on February 11, 2026, ahead of Spring Festival. The stores are located in three cities: three in Haikou (Guomao, Chengxi, and West Coast commercial districts), one in Sanya’s Central Business District, and one in Danzhou’s Xiari Plaza. The Hainan provincial government stated it adopted a “稳妥有序、风险可控” (steady and orderly, risk-controllable) approach, with plans to expand the store network in subsequent batches.

In the first two weeks after opening, the five stores attracted 46.5万人次 (465,000 visitor-trips), as reported by Hainan Governor Liu Xiaoming at the National People’s Congress open session on March 7, 2026, indicating notable initial foot traffic, though no official benchmark for expected volume has been published. A CPC Hainan Deep Reform Office (自贸港工委办) press briefing on February 26 reported cumulative shopping value at the five stores of 874.61万元 (RMB 8.7461 million) from opening through approximately late February; this figure includes both zero-tariff and taxed goods sold in the same stores (含完税商品). The zero-tariff component alone was not separately disclosed for this period.

📎 Source: Xinhua (press conference) (2026-02-06) https://www.news.cn/20260206/00915410e9c748b9bc578611764e69f0/c.html   📎 Parallel source: CPC Hainan Deep Reform Office briefing via China News Service (2026-02-26) https://hi.people.com.cn/n2/2026/0227/c231190-41510499.html

Spring Festival Offshore Duty-Free Sales: 27.2亿元 (+30.8% YoY)

During the 2026 Spring Festival holiday (February 15–23, nine days), Haikou Customs supervised offshore duty-free (离岛免税) sales of 27.2亿元 (RMB 2.72 billion), an increase of 30.8% compared with the 2025 Spring Festival holiday (January 28 – February 4, 2025). The number of items sold was 199.7万件 (1.997 million items), up 21.9% year-on-year. The number of shoppers reached 32.5万人次 (325,000 shopper visits), up 35.4%.

This was the first Spring Festival following the December 18, 2025 island-wide customs closure (封关运作). The year-on-year comparison base is the 2025 Spring Festival, which preceded customs closure; from the published figures alone, the data does not isolate the contribution of the new policy environment from seasonal holiday demand.

📎 Source: General Administration of Customs / customs.gov.cn (2026-02-26) https://www.customs.gov.cn/customs/2026-02/26/article_2026022609141372350.html   📎 Parallel source: Xinhua (2026-02-25) https://www.news.cn/20260225/370a01c4ef5942859a636f86f968ae48/c.html

Duty-Free New Policy 100-Day Cumulative: 115.85亿元 (+14.71% YoY)

On February 9, Haikou Customs disclosed that from November 1, 2025 (when the latest round of duty-free policy adjustments took effect) through February 8, 2026, a period of 100 days, cumulative offshore duty-free sales reached 115.85亿元 (RMB 11.585 billion), up 14.71% year-on-year. A parallel release via CCTV, with data through February 11, placed the cumulative figure at 121.1亿元 (RMB 12.11 billion), up 13.9%.

The November 1 policy adjustments expanded the product range from 45 to 47 categories, extended eligibility to departing (离境) travellers, and allowed six categories of domestic goods into duty-free stores.

📎 Source: People’s Daily Hainan (citing Haikou Customs) (2026-02-10) https://hi.people.com.cn/n2/2026/0210/c231190-41498195.html   📎 Parallel source: CCTV Economics (2026-02-13) https://jingji.cctv.com/2026/02/13/ARTIV4Rb2ozbSLO9ckPpHPxi260212.shtml

Customs Port Trade Up More Than 9% YoY in First Two Months Post-Closure

In an interview published by China Daily on March 10, 2026, Hainan Governor Liu Xiaoming stated that in the first two months after island-wide customs operations began on December 18, 2025, imports and exports at local customs ports grew by more than 9% year-on-year. Additional figures from the same interview: new foreign-invested enterprises rose 45.6%; 55.77万人次 (557,700 traveller entries and exits) passed through Hainan’s international ports; and 14.1万人次 (141,000) were visa-free foreign visitor entries, a 62.2% year-on-year increase.

A CPC Hainan Deep Reform Office (自贸港工委办) press briefing on February 26 stated that from December 18, 2025 to February 17, 2026, Hainan added 4.79万户 (47,900) new business entities province-wide, a year-on-year increase of 30.15%.

Note: No standalone February monthly import/export aggregate had been located in official sources reviewed for this report. The governor’s two-month post-closure figure is one of the clearest published aggregate indicators of post-closure customs-port trade activity in the sources reviewed.

📎 Source: China Daily Chinese (Governor Liu Xiaoming interview) (2026-03-10) https://cn.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202603/10/WS69afb1dba310942cc49a2519.html   📎 Parallel source: CPC Hainan Deep Reform Office briefing via China News Service (2026-02-26) https://hi.people.com.cn/n2/2026/0227/c231190-41510499.html

WHAT IT MEANS

The primary policy development in February was the launch of the resident zero-tariff consumer goods policy, which extends zero-tariff treatment to eligible island residents, in addition to earlier enterprise, and traveller-facing policy channels. The annual quota is set at 10,000 yuan per person. Published data indicates that 465,000 visitor-trips were recorded at the five new stores in their first two weeks, indicating notable initial foot traffic. Cumulative shopping value at those stores reached 874.61丧元 (RMB 8.7461 million, including both zero-tariff and taxed goods) from opening through approximately late February. The policy is still too new to support firm conclusions about broader economic impact.

The Spring Festival duty-free figures, 27.2亿元 in offshore duty-free sales, up 30.8% year-on-year, represent the largest single published monetary figure for February among the sources reviewed. The rise in shopper trips (35.4%) and items sold (21.9%) is consistent with broad-based consumer participation, though the published release does not break out spending by customer segment. The comparison base is the 2025 Spring Festival, which fell before customs closure; from the published figures alone, the data does not isolate the contribution of the new policy environment from seasonal holiday demand.

Zero-tariff imports during the Spring Festival holiday totalled approximately 4,860万元 (RMB 48.6 million), a figure that is small in absolute terms and modest relative to the 14.26亿元 in port-level imports reported for the same nine-day period. These figures cover only the holiday window and should not be treated as representative of a full month of activity. They confirm that the zero-tariff mechanism continued to function during the period; the available data does not yet establish the trajectory of zero-tariff uptake outside holiday windows.

Governor Liu’s two-month post-closure figure, a more than 9% year-on-year increase in customs-port imports and exports, indicates growth but is not directly comparable to duty-free retail growth rates reported elsewhere, which measure a different activity. No breakdown by imports, exports, commodity, or trading partner has been published for this period. The 45.6% increase in new foreign-invested enterprises is a registration-based metric and does not by itself indicate operational activity or capital deployment. The 47,900 new business entities (up 30.15% year-on-year) recorded province-wide from December 18 to February 17 is a separate figure from the CPC Deep Reform Office briefing and covers a slightly different window.

At this stage, the February data set confirms operational continuity and consumer-facing momentum. Duty-free retail is one of the most data-rich publicly reported segments in the February source set. The resident zero-tariff policy is institutionally significant, but still too new to support firm conclusions about broader economic impact. No standalone monthly trade figures for February have been located in official sources reviewed, and the available two-month aggregate lacks the granularity needed to assess sector-level or partner-level trade patterns.

BOTTOM LINE

The primary February development was the launch of the island-resident zero-tariff consumer goods policy and the opening of Hainan’s first five daily-goods duty-free stores, which attracted 465,000 visitor-trips in two weeks and recorded cumulative shopping value of 874.61万元 (including both zero-tariff and taxed goods) by late February. Spring Festival offshore duty-free sales hit 27.2亿元 (+30.8% YoY), confirming that consumer-facing activity remains the most data-rich segment in the publicly available official releases.

Customs-port imports and exports in the first two months post-closure grew by more than 9% year-on-year. Holiday-period zero-tariff and processing trade volumes were limited, and the available data does not yet establish whether these figures reflect the normal operating scale of those policy tools.

The data shows operational continuity across the FTP’s customs and duty-free systems, with the strongest publicly visible data concentrated in the duty-free retail segment; enterprise-level trade-facilitation functions have not yet reached significant operational scale based on the data available.