Laws of the People's Republic of China

Circular of the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation on Distributing the Administration Measures for the Barter Trade between Border Residents

Shu Jian [1996]No. 242

(Promulgated by the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation on March 29, 1996)

The customs houses of Haerbin, Changchun, Dalian, Urumchi, Lhasa, Manchuria, Hohhot, Kunming and Nanning, and the commissions (departments) of foreign trade and economic cooperation of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guangxi and Yunnan:

We hereby issue the Measures for the Administration of the Barter Trade between Border Residents to you, please promulgate it by Order No. 65 of the General Administration of Customs and seriously implement them, and the related issues are notified as follows:

1.

It is very difficult to incorporate various conditions into one document of administrative provisions by virtue of the fact that the land border of our country is very long and the conditions of each border area are greatly different. Therefore, the present Provisions only prescribe the necessary conditions, varieties as well as the monetary limits for the barter trade between border residents, and all the customs houses at the border areas shall formulate the specific implementation rules according to their respective actual situations.

2.

The establishment of areas (sites) for the barter trade between border residents shall be approved by the people's government of the border province or autonomous region, and any area (site) for the barter trade between border residents may not be established at random on any region. The government of the province or autonomous region may, as regards the administration of the barter trade between border residents with a fairly small scale and without closing conditions, formulate specific administrative measures together with the customs house directly under the General Administration of Taxation in accordance with the present Measures, and report them to the General Administration of Taxation for archival filing.

3.

Where the visitors, upon approval of the border inspection organ and the local public security organ, come in and out of an area (site) for the barter trade between border residents, the customs house may handle it in light of the limits on the articles that can be carried by the residents in border areas.

4.

With regard to those border areas with bad weather, poor natural conditions and extremely special circumstances, the area (site) for the barter trade between border residents may be established in the border port or a place nearby. And the specific location shall be determined by the government of the province or autonomous region in conjunction with the customs house directly under the General Administration of Taxation, and shall be reported to the General Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation for archival filing.

Appendix: Measures for the Administration of the Barter Trade between Border Residents (Omitted)