As of August 5, Northeast China has been implementing the Customs Regional Clearance Integration (RCI) for 100 days, to the benefit of more than 40,000 foreign trade companies, according to a release by China’s General Administration of Customs.
Under this system, companies can freely choose which Customs office they wish to conduct customs formalities with, including declaration, taxation, examination, and release. They could opt to deal with the Customs office where they registered, with the one actually holding their inward and outward goods, or with one of the centralized declaration venues set up by their Customs Districts.
“This reform, based on the concept of ‘interconnection and collaboration of six Customs Districts across four provinces to perform duties efficiently as a whole,’ really enables companies in Northeast China to enjoy the convenience of clearance,” said the statement.
China’s Customs agency launched on July 1 the interconnected cross-regional clearance integration system nationwide, fully integrating five major regions, namely, Northeast area, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Silk Road Economic Belt, Yangtze River Economic Belt, and Pan-Pearl River Delta.
Since the launch, more than 600,000 declaration forms have been processed by Customs, among which Dalian Customs District has contributed to more than 400,000.
One of the beneficiaries of the system, said the release, is FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd, located in Jilin Province. It can now directly declare its imported goods and have them released at Dalian Customs District through the RCI program.
Zhao Yue, the company’s vice manager for import and export, said, “Since the beginning of RCI, we have cleared more than 1,000 TEU containers at Dalian Port, with an average of two days saved for each consignment and a considerable decrease of clearance cost in comparison with traditional (modes) of customs transit.”
Similarly, Dalian Ruixin International Logistics Company said the RCI has led to the smooth clearance in just a few minutes of a consignment of imported automotive parts declared at the Document Examination Center of Dalian Customs District at Manzhouli Land Port in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The release was made at a speed that was “previously impracticable,” it added.
Zhou Bin, director general of Dalian Customs District, said that with the current foreign trade downturn, Dalian Customs District will further implement the policy of “three mutuals”—mutual recognition of control, mutual assistance of enforcement, and mutual exchange of information among port administrative departments—as required by the State Council, as well as streamline administration and decentralize power to improve services, facilitate foreign trade, and resolve difficulties for firms.
Photo: Whoisgalt
