China's General Administration of Customs is working on a series of measures, including reducing the total port clearance time for imports and exports, in order to further improve port efficiency within the framework of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Association (RCEP), a senior official said.
The agency is planning ahead and making preparations for the effective implementation of the RCEP provisions related to Customs. A workshop has been organized Comparative study on cross-border trade facilitation to provide professional decision-making support to create a better legal and market-oriented port business environment, said Dang Yingjie, Deputy Director-General of the National Port Administration Bureau of the General Administration of Customs.
Regarding the implementation of the tariff concessionsThe official clarified that the General Administration of Customs is preparing to promulgate the RCEP Measures for the Administration of the Origin of Imported and Exported Goods and the Administrative Measures for Approved Exporters, as well as to resolve the procedures for applying preferential import and export visas under the RCEP and the construction of a supporting information system to ensure the convenience of enterprises to make proper declarations and enjoy due benefits.
With regards to Customs protection of intellectual property rightsDang said that the General Administration of Customs will actively fulfill the obligations stipulated by the RCEP, strengthen cooperation and coordination with other customs authorities of RCEP members, jointly improve the level of intellectual property protection in the region and maintain a favorable business environment.
China's foreign trade with the other 14 RCEP members amounted to 10,2 trillion yuan (1,59 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, accounting for 31,7 percent of total foreign trade during the same period, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.
In order to facilitate China's foreign trade, the total dispatch time The nationwide clearance time for imports was 37,12 hours in March this year, while for exports it was 2,07 hours. The total clearance time was reduced by more than 50% for both imports and exports compared to 2017, based on Customs statistics.
China's foreign trade expanded its growth in the first four months, with the country fully promoting efforts to coordinate the development of this sector. Its trade expanded by 28,5 percent year on year to 11,62 trillion yuan in the January-April period, up 21,8 percent from the same period in 2019, according to the latest data from the Customs.
In addition to shortening the total port clearance time for foreign trade goods, Dang stressed that the government will actively support the innovative port development in inland areas and will support the establishment of cargo airports in areas with suitable conditions or increase the opening of international passenger and cargo routes at existing ports.
Thanks to Joint action of the General Customs Administration, ministries and commissions, the regulatory documents that must be verified in the import and export process at ports have been simplified from 86 in 2018 to 41, falling by 52,3% to date.
Among these 41 types of regulatory documents, with the exception of three of them which cannot be processed via the Internet due to special circumstances, the remaining 38 can be requested and processed online.
A total of 23 types of documents can be processed through the "one stop shop» in international trade. Companies do not need to send printed supervision certificates to Customs, as automatic comparisons and verifications are made during the customs clearance session, the official said.
These measures will effectively simplify the procedures for registering and filing enterprises, and provide timely help to companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, in solving their problems in both imports and exports, said Sang Baichuan, a professor of foreign trade at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
With the objective of Increase support for foreign trade enterprises in the country and alleviate its problemsLast year, the Government accelerated the process of granting permits for the import of agricultural products and food, shortened the time for quarantine examination and approval, and allowed applications that meet the requirements to be submitted and approved at the same time.
Source: Xinhua
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