Following the “the Belt and Road” Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, the 15th China-ASEAN Customs Consultation was held from May 16th to 18th , 2017 in Bali, Indonesia. Mr. Zou Zhiwu, Vice-Minister of the General Administration of Customs, attended the meeting on behalf of China Customs.
In the speech delivered at the meeting, Mr. Zou Zhiwu reviewed the progress made in China-ASEAN customs cooperation in recent years and made the following suggestions to promote cooperation:
● Giving full play to the roles of customs in jointly building "the Belt and Road" ;
● Carrying out cooperation in customs clearance facilitation;
● Strengthening law enforcement cooperation;
● Enhancing cooperation in capacity building.
All these suggestion were echoed and highly praised by the DGs of the ASEAN member administrations. During side meetings, Mr. Zou Zhiwu also held bilateral talks with the Customs Heads of Indonesia, Viet Nam, the Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia and Myanmar. China-ASEAN Customs Cooperation made substantial progress through this visit, and has heightened the level of cooperation in the region.
Active response to “the Belt and Road” Initiative and the “Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism”
ASEAN members highly praised the positive results and broad consensus reached in “the Belt and Road” Forum for International Cooperation and expressed their wishes to work with China Customs under the framework of “the Belt and Road” in terms of mutual information exchange, mutual recognition of supervision, and mutual assistance in law enforcement.
The cooperation aims to effectively promote regional trade facilitation and the level of interconnectivity; to provide full support for China and the ASEAN member states to realize the common goal of “forging Southeast Asia into pole of stable growth in the world economy” and finally to significantly raise their profile and role in regional and global economic development, prosperity and stability.
Customs representatives of Cambodia, Laos, Viet Nam and other countries strongly supported China’s suggestions on strengthening customs cooperation under the “Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism” and are willing to cooperate fully to achieve sub-regional cooperation after listening to the constructive proposals of China.
Starting New China-ASEAN Cooperation under “the Belt and Road”
Mr. Zou Zhiwu put forward the following proposals on the meeting and received positive responses from ASEAN member states.
China Customs is willing to work closely with the ASEAN Customs to deepen mutual trust and jointly study and launch a basket of sound cooperation projects. He also suggested to research and formulate the Action Plan (2018-2020) for the Implementation of the China-ASEAN Cooperation Memorandum. Based on the respective needs, both parties should produce a list of specific measures to implement the Memorandum, make plans and conduct annual discussions on the scope of cooperation for the next two years. China Customs is looking forward to working together with ASEAN Customs to carry out cooperation on “mutual information exchange, mutual recognition of supervision, and mutual assistance in law enforcement”, to further innovate and expand areas of cooperation and jointly build the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road through the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor or the key “Belt and Road” infrastructure projects that have already been started or planned.
Signing a Number of Cooperation Documents to Deepen Cooperation
In recent years, the friendly cooperation between China and ASEAN has been deepened in an extensive way. China and ASEAN member states have established the closest dialogue partnership with the most extensive ties and substantial outcomes, which have made significant contribution to the development, prosperity, peace and stability in the region and the world.
According to China Customs statistics, the trade volume between both parties reached US$111.97 billion in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 18%. China is ASEAN's largest trading partner while ASEAN is China’s third largest trading partner, the second largest source of imports and the fourth largest market for export. The flow of personnel between both sides exceeded 30 million.
As an important part of the China-ASEAN strategic partnerships, China-ASEAN Customs Cooperation has been established with a multi-level cooperation mechanism including meetings of the Director-General and meetings of the Coordinating Committee, etc. Both parties have carried out fruitful cooperation in capacity building, law enforcement, trade facilitation, China- ASEAN Free Trade Area and other key areas.
ASEAN member customs believe that “the Belt and Road” Forum for International Cooperation has provided new opportunities and the impetus for international cooperation and all expressed their strong desire to negotiate, sign cooperation documents and further deepen the cooperation with China Customs. These include the following:
● Indonesia: Documents on customs enforcement, twinning customs project and cooperation on origin verification etc., which are currently being negotiated, are incorporated into a comprehensive strategic cooperation document, which is expected to be signed by the end of this year.
● The Philippines: Information exchange is the basis of cooperation. The Philippines hopes to cooperate with China in terms of the exchange of statistical data and data comparison of bilateral trade. To better implement the bilateral customs administrative assistance agreement, the Philippines hopes to actively negotiate and sign relevant agreements on implementation rules.
● Malaysia: Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) mutual recognition system provides enterprises with affordable customs clearance facilitation. Malaysia wishes to reach an agreement on the text of AEO mutual recognition cooperation and sign the law enforcement cooperation documents with China within this year.
● Cambodia: Cambodia hopes to sign the China-Cambodia Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement as soon as possible so as to further consolidate the traditional friendly ties between the customs of both nations.
● Lao Democratic Republic: Laos wishes to research, formulate and carry out the relevant implementation rules on the Arrangement on Customs Clearance Facilitation Cooperation between the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China and the Ministry of Finance of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
Frequent High Level Exchange Visits and More Pragmatic Projects
Cooperation under the “the Belt and Road” Initiative has intensified and promotes friendly exchanges at all levels. In the first half year, Mr. Kulit Sombatsiri, the Director General of the Customs Department of Thailand, Mr. Ariel Nepomuceno, Deputy Commissioner of Bureau of Customs of the Philippines and Mr. Subromaniam Tholasy, the Director-General of Royal Malaysian Customs Department, visited China to strengthen pragmatic cooperation in all fields and exchange views with the result a broad consensus was reached. During the meeting, Director-Generals from the Indonesia, the Philippines, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Lao Democratic Republic and other ASEAN customs members expressed their expectation to visit Beijing for discussion of future cooperation plans within this year.
ASEAN member administrations thanked China for years of assistance on capacity building and technology and hoped that China would continue to provide support on the modernization of container scanning equipment, free trade areas, AEO and other areas. In recent years, with the support of the China Customs, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and other ASEAN Customs have repeatedly cracked down on major drug cases. The parties are looking forward to cooperating with China to combat drug smuggling, maintain social stability and timely hold a joint press conference to show the results of customs enforcement cooperation and jointly combat cross-border drug smuggling gangs.
At the beginning of the new era, China Customs will continue to deepen cooperation with ASEAN Customs in the framework of the “the Belt and Road”, and jointly implement the consensus of the Leaders of both sides and make a positive contribution to building a closer China-ASEAN Community of Shared Future.
Vice-Minister of the General Administration of Customs, Mr. Zou Zhiwu, attends and Co-chairs the 15th
China-ASEAN Customs Consultation at the Meeting of the ASEAN Directors-General of Customs in Bali, Indonesia.
Mr. Zou Zhiwu holds bilateral talks with the Viet Nam delegation.
Mr. Zou Zhiwu exchanges souvenirs with Mr. Heru Pambudi, Director General
of Indonesian Customs after bilateral talks.