On June 5, 2019, Ningbo Customs released 8 major trade facilitation measures for China-CEE countries named "three fast-lanes, two premium services, three promoting actions". These measures were meant to accelerate the independent innovation of Ningbo demonstration zone, comprehensively enhance the level of cooperation with CEE countries, and fully serve the national and provincial opening-up strategy.
A person in charge from Ningbo Customs said that these eight measures are expected to improve the efficiency of customs clearance of import goods from CEE, create a good service environment for imports, attract more importers in Ningbo, and make Ningbo one of the three preferred places for CEEC's goods to enter the Chinese market.
Expedite customs clearance of inbound exhibits at the China-CEEC Expo
Three major categories of inspection and quarantine prohibitions and 12 major categories of inspection and quarantine restrictions are made clear in the directory. In order to facilitate the entry of exhibits to the Expo, Ningbo Customs has set up an exclusive channel for customs clearance of exhibits, appointed a dedicated post to handle the filing and customs clearance procedures of exhibits at the CEE Expo, and instructed agencies to handle quarantine approval and exhibits filing in advance.
In addition, Ningbo Customs has simplified the declaration process for exhibits and customs clearance and inspection procedures, allowing reasonable consumption of prepackaged food, cosmetics and other exhibits for tasting, trial use and give-out on the premise that exhibitors provide qualifying documents on the quality of exhibits.
Quick inspection of imported goods
The Customs optimizes the original inspection and quarantine supervision processes of imported goods, and constantly improves operational efficiency, tighten the overall supervision of the port so as to create a stable, fair and transparent trade environment.
First, there is a clear on-site unified operational specifications and requirements and every operation is in accordance with the instructions so that law enforcement can be implemented in a unified manner.
Second, optimize the relevant business processes in accordance with the principles of appropriate regulation and streamlining and merging to create the least number of procedures but of the best quality.
Third, coordinate the deployment of existing regulatory equipment and strengthen the integrated use of operations with both “investigation and inspection” to achieve good results.
Accelerate the examination of imported goods.
First, optimize the inspection and quarantine process for fresh products, implement immediate release measures for aquatic animals, and conduct fast release of qualified imported fruits.
Second, simplify the quarantine approval process for cold foods. Ningbo Customs initiates paperless processing for quarantine approval so that the importers applying for quarantine approval don’t have to come to the customs in person to go through the procedures; at the same time, it speeds up the quarantine approval process time frame, which is reduced to 7working days from 10 days.
Third, implement the "inspection and release after testing" regulatory model for minerals, as the average length of customs clearance is reduced to 2 working days from 19 working days. When everything is ready for a roll-out, the efficiency of minerals customs clearance will be significantly improved.
Optimize foreign registration and quarantine access.
First, in terms of expanding exports. Foreign health registration for exporters is the door knocker for Chinese goods to enter the international market. Specific types of products without access to export enterprises foreign health registration will not be able to enter foreign markets. Ningbo Customs will do its best to register export food enterprises with foreign countries and support more enterprises to obtain foreign health registrations to expand exports.
Second, in terms of food imports.10 CEE countries food safety management system across Austria, Hungary and other CEE countries and access research work is authorized by Ningbo Customs. The process of food access to CEE countries will be sped up and the scale of food trade between China and CEE countries will be expanded.
Third, in terms of import of animal and plant products. This year, Ningbo Customs has granted the quarantine access for "Lithuanian silage" to go to China. Going forward, Ningbo Customs will continue to enlarge the market access range of CEE products.
Optimize risk management and quarantine treatment mechanisms.
For instance, for imported cotton sampling and inspection at Ningbo port, the proportion of sampling batches and batches of boxes is lowered to a minimum of 20% on the basis of risk assessment. Secondly, the import of bulk logs fumigation process is optimized. Importers shall apply to qualified agencies before entry and implement fumigation and pest control treatment and provide a report on the results of the treatment to further shorten the customs clearance time. In addition, the technical indicators of fumigation treatment are modified to promote the application of sulfuryl fluoride fumigation and improve the efficiency of pest control treatment.
Promote key projects and enterprise support mechanisms.
The key projects and enterprises settled in the demonstration zone of China-CEE economic and trade cooperation are included in the list of key assistance from the Customs. "One file for one enterprise" is established and enterprise coordinators are provided to carry out "one-to-one" assistance, and targeted policy promotion and business training is offered.
Promote streamlined regulatory model.
This new regulation model is expected to raise the efficiency of goods entering and leaving the special supervisory area by 20%, saving on average tens of thousands of yuan per year for each enterprise in transportation, management and labor costs. Enterprises will conduct independent paperwork filing, and the electronic book filing procedures are more simplified, which means that there is no need to go back and forth to the customs for paper work. The filing business processing can be completed online instantly and once for all, reduced from the original two to three days. Self-determined write-off cycle is implemented, so that enterprises will be more flexible in their production management. In this way, enterprise production plans are fitted and their write-off inventory efficiency can be significantly improved, as each enterprise can reduce one to two days of production suspension caused by write-off. Independent verification and tax reimbursement help enterprises with their self-regulation and self-management, allowing them to correct mistakes and rectify themselves. In regard to simplifying the business approval procedures for the enterprises in special supervision areas, Ningbo Customs delivers those enterprises with reports distribution and collection, outward processing and other businesses, which is a one-time business qualification to the enterprises. It will facilitate the handling of customs-related businesses for enterprises and therefore improve their operation efficiency.
Promote tax guarantee reform.
Ningbo Customs will help CEE enterprises to launch tariff guarantee insurance, aggregate taxation and other convenient measures to speed up the approval of guarantees so as to ease the financial pressure on enterprises and shorten the clearance time for importers.
As for tax guarantee reform, aggregated tax collection, tariff guarantee insurance pilot and other tax facilitation measures are rolled out, which will effectively lower the entry qualifications and financing costs in foreign trade enterprises’ attempt to obtain guarantees. The financial pressure and costs borne by enterprises are therefore reduced when it comes to customs clearance guarantees. These measures are estimated to reduce enterprise guarantee costs by 20% and improve customs clearance efficiency by nearly 10%. These measures will also be able to help taxpayers revitalize their funds and thus provide more policy support for enterprise development.