Customs officers had received approximately 18 million declarations through the operation systems of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei clearance integration, the Yangtze River Economic Belt clearance integration and the clearance integration among Customs administrations in Guangdong Province, said the General Administration of Customs.
Customs administrations in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and in Guangdong Province started in succession to execute the reform program on clearance integration in July last year. With the unfolding of the reform, Customs administrations in different regions are connected together, enabling the enterprises to choose by themselves the place to make declaration, pay taxes and have goods cleared.
“We’ve never expected that the goods can be released and ferried to the factory within one day after they arrived in Shanghai. All I need to do is clicking the mouse in my office”, said Cai Xiaoying, a Customs broker with Jincheng Freight Forwarder Limited. in Jiaxing, with excitement. Cai had imported a consignment of Falcata lumber with a value of USD150, 000, representing her client. The goods arrived at Shanghai at 5:00 am, gone through Customs formalities in the morning and were sent to the King Coconut Company in Jiashan at 3:00 pm the same day.
According to Cai Xiaoying, Jiaxing has great geographic advantages which can be manifested by the 30 minute- ride by high-speed rail. Despite of the sound transportation network, before, it took at least two days for enterprises to ferry the goods from Shanghai to Jiaxing if taking into account the time spent on declaration making, clearance and goods releasing and fetching from the harbor. Now with the reform on clearance integration in Yangtze River Economic Belt, enterprises can finish the customs procedures in one day in the Customs administration located in the place where they stay (so called “home Customs administration”) and have their goods released automatically at the checkpoints after a direction is issued by the Customs administration at the port where all the import and export procedures for the goods are completed following a “release” order given by the home Customs administration. The great improvement in customs efficiency brought by the reform amazes the veteran foreign trade dealers like Cai Xiaoying.
“From now on, the company no longer needs to go to another place for declaration making. What makes it better is that we can receive clients from the other 12 Customs Districts”, said Xuejun, the General Manager of Zhejiang Kaihom Logistics Co., Ltd. Xue is going to expand his business. To him, the reform not only means the convenience in customs procedures but also business opportunities.
According to Mr. Zhang Guangzhi, the declarations made under the regional clearance integration model takes up 80% of the national total in the same period. The average time spent on imports and exports released under the regional integration clearance model is 9.18 hours and 0.31 hours less respectively than under the traditional clearance model. The reform will be popularized by all Customs administrations in the country, making cross-customs clearance much easier and smoother.