On May 21, Gongbei Customs issued a written decision of advance ruling for commodity classification to Gree Electric Appliances Inc. of Zhuhai, marking the first written decision of advance ruling issued by Gongbei Customs since China Customs implemented new measures on advance ruling.

Advance ruling is one of the important measures for China Customs to serve enterprises in accordance with the obligations set forth by WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). An enterprise can apply to local Customs for advance ruling on such Customs affairs as import/export commodity classification, country of origin or qualification of origin, the elements and methods used for assessing dutiable values of import goods.  

According to the new Provisional Measures on Customs Advance Ruling of the People’s Republic of China, the former operations including advance classification of commodities, advance audit of prices and advance determination of origin, have been replaced by the latest measures on advance ruling, highlighting different scopes of application of the former and the latest ones.

Taking the former advance classification of commodities as an example, its scope of application is restricted to the very Customs District that has made the decision of advance classification. However, the newly-issued advance ruling will be applicable all over China Customs. Under the background of nationwide Customs-clearance integration since July 2017, the latest measures on advance ruling have satisfied enterprises for both higher efficiency in Customs clearance and lower cost in regulatory compliance.