Vice Minister Li Guo Visits France, Romania and the United Kingdom

10/15/2017

Vice Minister Li Guo headed a delegation to France, Romania and the United Kingdom in mid-September.

He met with Jean-Michel Thillier, Deputy Director General of French Customs and Excise, and Assistant Director General Francois Richard when he was in Paris, updated each other on latest reform initiatives and reached consensus on increasing exchange of visits and enhancing cooperation in capacity building, intellectual property right protection, mutual assistance in enforcement, AEO mutual recognition and multilateral affairs.

He met with Mirela Calugareanu, President of Romanian Ministry of Public Finance, Vice President Nicolae Pietrareanu and Bogdan Lari Mihei, Director General of the General Customs Directorate, in Bucharest, during which they updated each other on latest reform initiatives and reached consensus on further engagement in the Belt and Road Initiative and China-Central and Eastern European Countries Customs cooperation, as well as strengthening collaboration in AEO mutual recognition, SSTL pilot project, IPR protection and mutual administrative assistance.

When in London, he met with Sir Charles Montgomery, Director General of the UK Border Force, and Penny Ciniewicz, Director General of Customer Compliance of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, exchanged views and reached consensus on increasing connectivity under the Belt and Road Initiative, pushing for concrete outcomes in collaboration in clearance facilitation and mutual enforcement assistance, and exchanging best practice in customs oversight and service of cross-border e-commerce and building a smart customs.

During the visit, Vice Minister Li also met with Peng Jun, China’s ambassador in France, Xu Feihong, China’s ambassador in Romania, and Zhu Qin, Minister-Counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in the UK. He paid visits to customs operation sites and learnt about development of Chinese companies there.