- The 2026 Tariff Adjustment Plan (Announcement No. 11 [2025]) took effect on 1 January 2026 and further reduces RCEP agreement rates on top of prior phased cuts.
2026年关税调整方案（税委会公告2025年第11号）于2026年1月1日施行，在既往分阶段降税基础上进一步下调RCEP协定税率。- RCEP tariffs are eliminated or reduced on a scheduled glide path of up to 20 years, with rates stepping down every 1 January — so the rate on a given HS line changes year to year.
RCEP关税按最长20年的预定路径递减或取消，每年1月1日下调一档——故某一HS编码的税率逐年变化。- The authoritative current RCEP rate for every product is Annex 6 (the FTA implementation-rate table) of the annual Tariff Adjustment Plan; importers must re-check it each January.
每一产品当前的RCEP权威税率载于年度关税调整方案的附件六（自贸协定实施税率表）；进口商须每年1月重新核对。- A lower agreement rate only delivers savings if the goods qualify as originating and the importer claims the preference at the border with a valid origin document.
只有当货物具备原产资格、且进口方在口岸凭有效原产地单证申报享惠时，较低的协定税率才能转化为节税。- RCEP’s regional cumulation is what makes many supply chains meet the origin threshold, turning ordinary China-made goods into preferentially-rated exports.
RCEP区域累积使众多供应链得以满足原产门槛，将普通中国制造货物转化为享惠出口品。- FIEs should build the RCEP rate into pricing, secure the origin certificate or authorised-exporter declaration, and file via the Single Window — re-checking the rate table every January.
外资企业应将RCEP税率纳入定价、取得原产地证书或经核准出口商声明，并通过单一窗口申报——每年1月重新核对税率表。
RCEP Tariff Concessions in 2026: Reading the Reduced-Rate Schedule and Claiming Preferences for Foreign-Invested Firms | RCEP 2026年关税减让：读懂降税税率表与外资企业享惠申报
Why the 2026 tariff schedule matters
On 1 January 2026, the State Council Tariff Commission’s 2026 Tariff Adjustment Plan (Announcement No. 11 [2025]) took effect, continuing China’s annual practice of lowering import duties under its free-trade agreements. For RCEP this means a fresh instalment of tariff cuts on top of the reductions phased in since the agreement entered into force on 1 January 2022. Because RCEP is the world’s largest free-trade area by GDP — 15 Asia-Pacific economies including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the ASEAN states — the annual trimming of the agreement rate is a recurring, treaty-backed margin that foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) can bank on.
The practical point is simple: a lower agreement (协定) rate only helps if the importer actually claims it, and claiming it requires the goods to qualify as originating and the right HS line to be read off the rate table. This article walks through the 2026 schedule, how RCEP cuts are structured, and what an FIE must do at the border.
How RCEP tariff elimination is structured
RCEP does not cut every tariff to zero on day one. Each member schedules its own commitments, and for most manufactured goods the destination country eliminates or reduces its import duty over a transition period of up to 20 years, with rates stepping down on 1 January of each year. China’s commitments are published as the “Implementation Rate Table for Free Trade Agreements and Preferential Trade Arrangements” (自由贸易协定和优惠贸易安排实施税率表), which is Annex 6 to the annual Tariff Adjustment Plan.
For any given HS code, the relevant rate is found by looking up the exporting member and the product line. A line may already be at zero (immediate elimination), on a gradual glide path (for example 10% → 8% → 6% → 0%), or, for a small number of sensitive products, subject to a longer or partial elimination. The decisive comparison for an importer is always: the RCEP agreement rate versus the MFN (most-favoured-nation) rate. Where the agreement rate is lower, the saving is the arbitrage an FIE should capture.
What changed on 1 January 2026
The 2026 Tariff Adjustment Plan confirms that, alongside bilateral FTAs with New Zealand, Peru, Switzerland, South Korea, Australia, Pakistan, Mauritius, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Serbia and the Maldives, the RCEP agreement rate is further reduced in 2026. At the same time, the Plan keeps the agreement rate in place for partners whose schedules have already completed their reductions (ASEAN, Chile, Singapore, Georgia, Iceland, Costa Rica and others), so those flows continue to enjoy preferential treatment without change.
Two structural facts are worth noting for 2026 specifically. First, 1 January 2026 marks the fourth anniversary of RCEP’s entry into force — by this point a large share of China’s tariff lines on imports from RCEP partners has already reached zero, and the 2026 step takes more lines down. Second, the Plan’s Annex 6 is the single authoritative source for the current RCEP rate on every HS line; it is updated every year, so an FIE should re-check the rate table each January rather than assume last year’s figure still applies.
Reading the agreement-rate table: finding your product’s reduced rate
The workflow for an FIE procurement or trade desk is:
- Identify the HS code of the import (or export) with precision — the six-digit subheading is the minimum, and the exact Chinese subheading matters because rates can differ within a heading.
- Locate the exporting RCEP member (for example Japan, Vietnam or Australia) in Annex 6 of the 2026 Plan.
- Read the 2026 agreement rate for that line and compare it with the MFN rate. The gap is the potential duty saving.
- Check the elimination category — whether the line is already at zero, on a glide path, or excluded — so you can forecast when it will hit zero.
Customs and commerce authorities publish supporting tools. Guangxi, for example, has compiled and continuously updated “three lists” (三张清单) of the region’s export-advantage products, covering more than 1,000 items and their RCEP import preferential rates in member countries from 2022 to 2027, letting exporters target the best rate. FIEs elsewhere can use the Ministry of Commerce’s China Free Trade Area Service Network and the customs Single Window to look up the same data.
Combining the rate with origin rules to actually qualify
A reduced rate is worthless without originating status. The rate table tells you the duty; RCEP’s rules of origin tell you whether your goods earn it. A product must meet the product-specific rule (a tariff-classification change, 40% regional value content, or a chemical-reaction rule) and, where useful, apply regional cumulation so inputs from any of the 15 members count as local content. For many FIE supply chains, the 2026 rate cut is the carrot, but cumulation is the mechanism that makes the goods qualify in the first place.
Documentary proof is the bridge: a valid RCEP certificate of origin or an authorised-exporter origin declaration must accompany the import declaration. Both are valid for one year from issuance. An FIE that re-sources even a few components from RCEP members can often cross the 40% regional value-content line and turn an ordinary China-made good into a preferentially-rated export — or, importing the other way, turn a partner-country input into a zero-duty purchase.
Practical claiming steps at the border
- Verify the rate before contracting. Build the RCEP rate into pricing quotes; do not discover it after the goods are at the port.
- Secure the origin document. Apply to the visa institution for a certificate before shipment, or — for high-volume flows — obtain authorised-exporter status and self-declare.
- Declare correctly via the Single Window. The importer files the import declaration through the China International Trade Single Window, citing the agreement (RCEP) and the certificate/declaration number; customs applies the agreement rate on verification.
- Keep the paper trail. Retain the origin document and the basis for origin (bill of materials, cost build-up). Customs may verify, and a failure to substantiate voids the preference.
- Re-check every January. Because rates step down annually, a line that was not worth claiming in 2025 may be worthwhile in 2026.
Pitfalls and a takeaway for the foreign parent
Common mistakes: assuming the MFN rate applies by default (it does, unless you claim); forgetting that the rate table changes each year; and treating the rate and the origin proof as separate exercises when they are two halves of one claim. The honest caveat is that a minority of sensitive lines remain subject to longer elimination periods, so not every product sees a 2026 cut.
For the foreign parent, the message is that RCEP tariff concessions are a durable, predictable cost lever. An FIE that checks the 2026 rate table each January, aligns its sourcing with cumulation, and claims the agreement rate at import, converts a treaty commitment into a recurring margin — one that compounds as more lines reach zero over the agreement’s 20-year horizon.
RCEP 2026年关税减让：读懂降税税率表与外资企业享惠申报
为何2026年税率表值得关注
2026年1月1日，国务院关税税则委员会《2026年关税调整方案》（税委会公告2025年第11号）正式施行，延续了中国每年依自贸协定下调进口关税的做法。对RCEP而言，这意味着在其自2022年1月1日生效以来已实施的分阶段降税基础上，又增加了一轮新的关税削减。由于RCEP是按GDP计全球最大的自由贸易区——涵盖中国、日本、韩国、澳大利亚、新西兰及东盟国家等15个亚太经济体——协定税率的逐年下调是一种可重复、由条约背书的利润空间，外资企业可长期依靠。
关键其实很简单：较低的协定税率只有在进口方实际申报享惠时才起作用，而申报享惠要求货物具备原产资格、并从税率表中准确读出对应的HS税目。本文梳理2026年方案、RCEP降税的结构，以及外资企业在口岸须完成的动作。
RCEP关税取消是如何安排的
RCEP并非在生效首日将所有关税降为零。各成员方各自作出关税承诺，对多数制成品，目的国在最长20年的过渡期内取消或下调进口关税，税率于每年1月1日下调一档。中国的承诺以”自由贸易协定和优惠贸易安排实施税率表”（年度关税调整方案附件六）对外公布。
对于任意给定的HS编码，某一时点的适用税率通过查找出口成员与产品税目确定。某税目可能已为零（立即取消），处于渐进路径（如10%→8%→6%→0%），或对少数敏感产品适用较长或部分的取消期。对进口方而言，决定性的比较始终是：RCEP协定税率与最惠国（MFN）税率之差。协定税率更低时，差额即为外资企业应当获取的套利空间。
2026年1月1日发生了什么变化
《2026年关税调整方案》明确，在与新西兰、秘鲁、瑞士、韩国、澳大利亚、巴基斯坦、毛里求斯、柬埔寨、尼加拉瓜、厄瓜多尔、塞尔维亚、马尔代夫等双边自贸协定的同时，RCEP协定税率在2026年进一步下调。与此同时，方案对已完成为期降税的伙伴（东盟、智利、新加坡、格鲁吉亚、冰岛、哥斯达黎加等）维持协定税率不变，相关流转继续享受优惠待遇。
就2026年本身，有两个结构性事实值得注意。其一，2026年1月1日是RCEP生效四周年——至此，中国对RCEP伙伴进口的大部分税目已降至零，2026年的下调又令更多税目归零。其二，方案附件六是每一HS税目当前RCEP税率的唯一年度权威来源；它每年更新，因此外资企业每年1月都应重新核对税率表，而不能假定去年的数字仍然有效。
读懂协定税率表：找到产品下调后的税率
外资企业采购或贸易岗的操作流程为：
- 准确确定进出口货物的HS编码——至少到六位子目，且须精确到中国子目，因为同一税目内税率可能不同。
- 在2026年方案附件六中定位出口的RCEP成员（如日本、越南、澳大利亚）。
- 读出该税目2026年的协定税率，并与MFN税率比较，差额即为潜在节税。
- 查看取消类别——是已为零、处于渐进路径还是被排除——以便预测其何时归零。
海关与商务部门提供配套工具。例如广西已编制并持续更新本地出口优势产品”三张清单”，覆盖1000余项商品在成员方2022年至2027年的进口优惠税率，便于出口商锁定最优税率。其他地区的企业可通过商务部”中国自由贸易区服务网”及海关”单一窗口”查询同一数据。
将税率与原产地规则结合以真正具备资格
较低的税率若无原产资格则毫无价值。税率表告诉你是何关税；RCEP原产地规则告诉你的货物能否享惠。产品须满足产品特定规则（税则归类改变、40%区域价值成分或化学反应规则），并在必要时适用区域累积，使任一成员方的投入均计为本地成分。对众多外资企业供应链而言，2026年降税是”胡萝卜”，而累积才是使货物首先具备资格的内在机制。
单证证明是二者之间的桥梁：进口申报须随附有效的RCEP原产地证书或经核准出口商原产地声明，二者自签发之日起一年内有效。一家仅将少数零件改由RCEP成员采购的外资企业，往往即可跨越40%区域价值成分线，把普通中国制造货物变为享惠出口品——或反向进口时，把伙伴国投入变为零关税采购。
口岸申报享惠的实操步骤
- 签约前核实税率。将RCEP税率纳入报价；不要在货物到港后才发现。
- 取得原产地单证。装运前向签证机构申领证书；对量大流转，取得经核准出口商资格并自行声明。
- 经单一窗口正确申报。进口方通过中国国际贸易”单一窗口”申报进口，注明协定（RCEP）及证书/声明编号；海关核验后适用协定税率。
- 留存痕迹。保存原产地单证及原产资格依据（物料清单、成本构成）。海关可核查，无法佐证将丧失优惠。
- 每年1月重新核对。因税率逐年下调，2025年不值得申报的税目，2026年可能值得。
应避免的陷阱与给外国母公司的要点
常见错误包括：默认适用MFN税率（除非申报，否则确实如此）；忘记税率表每年变化；把税率与原产证明当作两件事，而它们本是一体两面。坦诚的提醒是：少数敏感税目仍适用较长的取消期，故并非每种产品都有2026年下调。
对外国母公司而言，核心信息是：RCEP关税减让是一项持久、可预期的降本杠杆。一家每年1月核对2026税率表、将采购与累积对齐、并在进口时申报协定税率的外资企业，能把一项条约承诺转化为可重复的利润空间——且随着协议20年期限内更多税目归零而不断累积。
Sources
- 财政部：统筹国内国际两个大局 扎实推动高质量发展——2026年1月1日起我国调整部分商品关税税率税目（解读2026年关税调整方案）：https://m.mof.gov.cn/zcjd/202512/t20251229_3980630.htm
- 国务院关税税则委员会关于2026年关税调整方案的公告（税委会公告2025年第11号）— 中国政府网：https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/202512/content_7053062.htm
- 中国自由贸易区服务网（商务部）：RCEP全面生效三周年 河源市超5亿元出口货物享惠：https://fta.mofcom.gov.cn/article/c/rcep/rcepguandian/202606/58520.html
- 海关总署 RCEP原产地应用场景式服务：http://changsha.customs.gov.cn/changsha_customs/rcepycdzsqzcjsfw/index.html