First Consignment under China-South Korea FTA Cleared through Qingdao Customs

01/19/2016

On December 20, China-South Korea and China-Australia FTAs (Free Trade Agreement) officially took effect. On that Morning, South Korea-made 2600-ton liquid sulfur was declared to Qingdao Customs District for import with preferential duties set by China-South Korea FTA. This was the first-batch preferential import under the FTA.

Benefited from FTA tax reduction, the import duty was cut down from over CNY20,000 to zero. “With China-South Korea FTA taking effect, 10-yuan tax can be saved per ton of import according to current sulfur price. Then we can save more than CNY 1 million per year,” said Tan Jian, Vice Manager of Shandong Hongri Acron Chemical Joint Stock Company Ltd.

On December 20, Tongfeng Youdao Automatic Device, a company specialized in robot development, smoothly exported a batch of self-developed intelligent robots through Qingdao Customs upon Certificate of Origin issued by Qingdao Branch of CCPIT (China Council for the Promotion of International Trade). “Based on the FTA, the duty rate on China-made intelligent robots to South Korea has been cut down from 8% to 0, more than CNY 20,000 of duties exempted for this batch only,” said Dong Shengji, Vice Manager of Tongfeng Youdao. “The cost reduction will directly benefit South Korean customers, thus helping expand our market there.”

With China-Australia FTA into force, Chinese consumers can enjoy more preferential prices of imported Australian goods as beef, mutton, dairy products, wine, lobsters, and fruits, which will be provided with lower and lower duties untill zero.

For Chinese exporters, duty reduction offered by South Korea and Australia will create more opportunities for China-made products in overseas expansion. The FTAs will also bring cooperative chances in investment and service for enterprises to further explore.