Implement of New Industry Catalog to Promote Foreign Investment （2022）
China’s revised industry catalog of sectors encouraging foreign investment will be effective on Jan 1, 2023. According to the National Development and Reform Commission, the main changes in the new version of the Encouragement Catalogue are: first, China will continue to encourage foreign investment in manufacturing; second, it will continue to guide foreign investment in productive services; and third, it will further stabilize foreign investment and optimize its layout.
See Article 193-197 for the industrial entries related to printing and packaging in the all catalog. The details are as follows:
l 193. Light corrugated cardboard with a height of 0.75 mm and below and carton equipment manufacturing
l 194. Manufacture of sheet-fed multi-color offset printers (width ≥ 750 mm, printing speed: single side multi-color ≥ 16000 sheets/hour, double side multi-color ≥ 13000 sheets/hour)
l 195. The printing speed of single-sheet and single route web offset printers is greater than 75000 sheets/hour (787 × 880mm), that of double-sheet and single route web offset printers is greater than 170000 sheets/hour (787 × 880 mm), the printing speed of commercial web offset printers is more than 50000 sheets/hour (787 × 880 mm)
l 196. Manufacture of multi-color and wide-format flexographic printing machine (printing width ≥ 1300 mm, printing speed ≥ 350 m/s), inkjet digital printing machine (for publishing: printing speed ≥ 150 m/min, resolution ≥ 600 dpi; for packaging: printing speed ≥ 30 m/min, resolution ≥ 1000 dpi; for variable data: printing speed ≥ 100 m/min, resolution ≥ 300 dpi)
l 197. Manufacture of computer ink color preset, ink color remote control, ink speed tracking, automatic printing quality detection and tracking system, shaftless transmission technology, high-speed automatic paper feeder with a speed of 75000 sheets/hour, high-speed folding machine with automatic remote control adjustment, automatic overprint system, cooling device, silicon adding system, deviation adjustment device, etc.
In the list of advantageous industries for foreign investment in the central and western regions, five provinces encourage foreign investment in industries related to printing and packaging, as follows:
Anhui: packaging and decoration printing
Jiangxi: packaging and decoration printing
Henan: digital packaging and decoration printing
Hubei: packaging and decoration printing
Yunnan: packaging, decoration and other printing
Multiple paper varieties will be subject to zero import tariff
On December 29, the Tariff and Tariff Commission of the State Council issued the 2023 tariff adjustment plan, which will implement zero import tariff on multiple paper varieties. According to the latest announcement of the Tariff and Tariff Commission of the State Council, in order to enhance the linkage effect of the two resources in the domestic and international markets, China will implement a provisional import tariff rate lower than the most favored nation(MFN) tariff rate on 1020 goods from January 1, 2023, in which the double adhesive paper, coated paper, white cardboard, recycled cardboard and corrugated paper in paper-making products will implement zero tariff. However, this tax rate adjustment does not cover kraft cardboard and newsprint products.
Some printing enterprises are exempted from being listed as key units of environmental supervision
A few days ago, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment released the Administrative Measures for the Key Units Directory of Environmental Supervision on its official website, which will come into effect on January 1,2023.
It is worth noting that the regulation specifies that those with one of the six conditions should be listed as key pollutant discharging units of the atmospheric environment, These include "enterprises above the designated size in the coating industry, except those that all use the four types of low volatile and organic coatings that meet the national regulations, such as water-based, solvent-free, radiation curing, powder" and "enterprises above the designated size in the packaging and printing industry, except those that all use the low volatile and organic inks that meet the national regulations".
In other words, it means that all industrial coating, packaging and printing enterprises above designated size that use low VOCs coatings and inks are exempted from being listed as key pollutant discharging units of atmospheric environment.
Implement of Emission Standard of Air Pollutants for Printing Industry （GB 41616—2022）
This standard is formulated to implement the Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China and the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution, prevent and control environmental pollution, improve the quality of the ecological environment, and promote the technological progress and sustainable development of the printing industry. It specifies the requirements for air pollutant emission control, monitoring and supervision management of the printing industry. The discharge of water pollutants, odor pollutants and environmental noise from printing industry enterprises or production facilities should be subject to the corresponding national pollutant discharge standards, and the identification, treatment and disposal of solid waste should be subject to the corresponding national solid waste pollution control standards. This standard is issued for the first time and will be implemented from January 1,2023.