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 Some Issues about the Development of the High and New Technology Industry

ShuTingFa [2001] No.279 July 12,2001

Guangdong Branch, all customs offices directly under the GAC, the commissions (departments, bureaus) of foreign trade and economic cooperation of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and municipalities separately listed on the State plan:

With a view to carrying forward the spirit of the Circular of the State Council Concerning Distributing Some Policies on Encouraging the Software and the Integrated Circuit Industries (GuoFa [2000] No. 18), being adapted to the mode of production and business operation of the large high- and new-tech industries and the requests of the customs for supervision, supporting the development of the high- and new-tech industry and the export of high- and new-tech products, it has been decided after discussions that, apart from seriously implementing the various kinds of preferential policies as provided in the document GuoFa [2000] No. 18, simpler measure should be taken for the examination, approval and supervision by the customs offices over the large high- and new-tech manufacturing enterprises. Relevant issues are hereby publicized as follows:

I.

The large high- and new-tech manufacturing enterprises (including state-owned enterprises, privately-owned enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises) that engage in the high- and new-tech production and whose products have been included in the Catalog for Export of China's High- and New-Tech Products, jointly compiled by the Ministry of Science and Technology ("MST"), the MOFTEC, the Ministry of Finance ("MOF"), the State Administration of Taxation ("SAT"), and the GAC, and whose annual export volume is more than 100 million yuan, may, according to the provisions of the present Circular, file an application to the local customs office where the enterprise is situated for the adoption of simple measures. The simple measures may be applied after the customs office and the local department in charge of foreign trade and economic cooperation has granted their approval and after it is submitted to the GAC and MOFTEC for archivist purposes. For those large high- and new-tech manufacturing enterprises whose volume of export is not as much as provided in the preceding paragraph but who enjoy good credit standing and due to special circumstances and are therefore in need of adopting the simple procedures for customs clearance, the local customs office and the local department of foreign trade and economic cooperation shall examine their applications and report to the GAC and MOFTEC for ratification.

II.

The above-mentioned high- and new-tech manufacturing enterprises may, after obtaining approval, select any of the following alternatives of customs clearance:

1.

Declaring customs beforehand: In order to shorten the time for clearing customs, the above-mentioned enterprises may, within 3 days after the imported goods have been shipped but not yet arrived at the destination or after the exported goods have been transported to the supervision sites of the customs offices, and under the condition that the name, specifications and quantities of the goods imported or exported, apply beforehand to the customs for declaring customs and present relevant documents so that the goods may be directly checked and accepted by the customs offices at the supervision sites. In order to shorten the time for determining the category, dutiable value of the commodities in the process of examining documents by the customs offices or the time for determining the country of origin, the above-mentioned enterprises may, according to the provisions of the customs offices, apply to the customs offices to determine beforehand the category, dutiable value of the commodities and the country of origin.

2.

Declaring customs on the interconnected networks: The above-mentioned enterprises are encouraged to declare customs through the China Electronic Port Platform, and, at the business venue of the enterprise, go through the formalities for declaring customs at the customs office of the place of export or the customs office with jurisdiction. The enterprise inputs all data for clearing customs which are transmitted on the interconnected networks among the different departments of entry and exit, the customs sends back an electronic receipt after examining and approving the electronic data of the customs declaration forms, and then the enterprise send for or entrust its agent to go through the formalities of handing over documents and checking goods at the site of customs clearance. If the conditions allow, the customs may have the duties paid electronically through the networks of the banks interconnected with the customs, and the customs may, after having sent an electronic notice for paying duties, check the goods according to the electronic receipt issued by the bank concerned.

3.

Speed transfer of customs: According to the request of the above-mentioned enterprises, the customs shall take priority in handling the formalities for speed transfer of customs for the imported and exported goods of the said enterprise at various ports within the territory of China.

4.

Giving customs clearance at the venue of the enterprises: When it is necessary to check the imported or exported goods but difficult to check them at the site of customs clearance, the customs office should, according to the request of the above-mentioned enterprises, send officers to the enterprises to check the goods in the process of production, assembling and unassembling.

5.

Urgent clearance of customs: The customs offices shall give priority to the examination over the documents of the imported and exported goods of the above-mentioned enterprises, and establish green-light windows of customs clearance at the sites of customs clearance where there are large quantities of imported and exported goods of the said enterprises so as to give priority to handling the formalities of the said goods. The above-mentioned enterprises may make appointments with the customs offices so as to the go through the customs clearance formalities during the non-working days and holidays.

6.

Warranted check and customs clearance: In order to solve the problem of not being able to provide some of the documents (not including import and export permits) or other information temporarily in the handling of customs clearance formalities, or the customs offices not being able to determine the conditions for customs clearance like the category of the goods and estimated value so that the goods could not be cleared in a time way, the above-mentioned enterprises shall be allowed to handle the customs clearance beforehand by providing warranties acceptable to the customs, and then make up the relevant documents or information, make up the payment of duties or other formalities as required by the customs afterwards during the prescribed time period.

III.

You should reform the pattern of management of the processing trade of the above-mentioned enterprises. In their processing trade, the above-mentioned enterprises may, apart from apart from applying the various kinds of green-light procedures for customs clearance, apply to the customs offices to join the interconnected network management of the processing trade if the whole process of their production is under computerized management and if they could ensure the truthfulness of the relevant data and open their data to the customs. The bank caution money system of machine account for processing trade are not applicable to the large high- and new-tech manufacturing enterprises under interconnected network management. The departments of foreign trade and economic cooperation shall revoke the practice of ratifying individual contracts of imported materials in the processing trade, instead, they only examine the scope of business of the processing trade enterprises according to the credit standing and capacity of the enterprises. The customs offices shall revoke the supervision by way of Registration Handbooks, instead, they shall check the imported materials and parts of the enterprises according to the processing turnover during certain time periods and adopt the supervision method of "enterprise registration of subsections (protective tariffs), reporting for writing off at fixed intervals and verifying the writing-off at different time periods."

IV.

With a view to solving the various problems encountered in the enterprises' clearance of customs, a customs clearance inquiry and hotline on-duty system is established nationwide in all customs offices so that priority may be given to meeting the demands of the large high- and new-tech manufacturing enterprises by way of on-spot working, telephone, websites, etc. in making inquiries, checks, complaints, or other urgent requests. The person on-duty who first accepts the demand shall be responsible for providing services.

V.

The large high- and new-tech manufacturing enterprises shall, upon ratification, enter into a Letter of Guarantee for the Application of Simple Customs Clearance Procedures with the local customs office that has jurisdiction with the enterprise for specifying the rights, obligations and relevant terms and conditions of the enterprises. The Letter of Guarantee shall, after being signed, sent to all the customs offices nationwide for archivist purposes and the customs offices of all local places shall take it as the basis for applying simple procedures. The enterprises to whom simple procedures are applied should reinforce their consciousness of law-observation, rigidly fulfilling all the commitments, voluntarily observing the rules of the customs offices, and at the same time strengthen their internal management so as to prevent the internal working staff members from engaging in smuggling or other illegal activities. The customs offices shall, as pursuant to the Regulation of the People's Republic of China on Customs Inspection, check and inspect the enterprises regularly or irregularly, and whenever discovering any smuggling or other illegal activities, stop immediately the application simple procedures. After terminating the application of simple procedures, the customs offices may not accept the request of the said enterprises for applying simple customs clearance procedures within half a year.

VI.

The specific detailed measures for implementing the various customs clearance procedures nationwide as mentioned above and for reforming the management pattern of processing trade shall be separately formulated and promulgated by the GAC.