我国尚无对自贸区的法律或政策定义，也无对自贸区法律地位的规定。同时，我国也从无对自贸区是否属于“境内关外”的官方解释或有效解释。在现实中，我国知识产权海关保护制度是否适用于自贸区存在疑问，也鲜有自贸区中的知识产权海关保护的执法或创新政策出现。鉴于在自贸区内存在知识产权侵权风险，对自贸区（欧盟与《京都公约》中称为“自由区”）实施知识产权海关保护是当前国际规则的主流趋势。自贸区不是“境内关外”，而是“境内关内”的海关监管区。海关具有对自由区内货物（包括侵权货物问题）实施监管的充分权力。
There is no legal or policy definition of China’s free trade zones（FTZs，also known as “free zone” in EU or in the Kyoto Convention）and no provision is available on the legal status of the FTZ. Meanwhile，China has not issued the official or effective interpretation on whether the FTZ is a special area regarded as being outside the customs territory. In practice，it is an arguable question if the customs authorities have the competency to enforce IPR protection in the FTZs of China，and there is also rare enforcement or innovative policies carried out in FTZs to protect IPR. Given the risks of infringement in FTZs，the main trend of the current international rules is to enforce IPR customs protection in free zones. In fact，the free zone is an area under the customs supervision which is located inside instead of outside the customs territory. Customs authorities have the full competency to enforce the IPR protection in FTZs.
