Photo: Hu Wei introduces the situation of optimizing the business environment at ports and speeding up the level of customs clearance facilitation at the regular policy briefing of The State Council
On July 3, The State Council Information Office held a regular briefing on the policy of The State Council. Hu Wei, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Customs, Huang Guansheng, Director of the National Port Administration Office of the General Administration of Customs, and Dang Yingjie, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs, introduced the situation of optimizing the business environment at ports and accelerating the level of customs clearance facilitation and answered questions from journalists。
Hu Wei introduced that the Party Central Committee and The State Council attach great importance to the work of trade facilitation, and the relevant departments of port management have effectively promoted the improvement of port efficiency and fee reduction in recent years, which has effectively improved the business environment of China's ports。On June 10 this year, the executive meeting of The State Council made further arrangements for the next stage of optimizing the business environment at ports and accelerating the level of customs clearance facilitation, and put forward new requirements。On June 27, the General Administration of Customs, together with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Transport and other 10 relevant departments jointly issued the Notice on Accelerating the level of Customs Clearance Facilitation.，It focuses on further simplifying documents, optimizing processes, improving customs clearance efficiency, improving port informatization, and reducing port charges，A total of 10 specific measures were proposed。
Blade inward simplifies regulatory documentation
The reporter learned from the briefing，Last year, the General Administration of Customs withdrew 40 of the 86 kinds of supervision documents in the import and export link from the port inspection，On the basis of，By September 30, 2019，The General Administration of Customs and the National Health Commission will withdraw two kinds of food supervision certificates from the port for inspection，The import and export customs clearance process no longer requires enterprises to provide this document。The two documents are: new food raw material supervision documents and food supervision documents without national standards for food safety。After exiting the port inspection, the system will automatically compare and prompt the imported food according to its applicable national food safety standards and announcements in the customs clearance link, and automatically release the food if it meets the conditions。
In addition, before December 31, 2019, the National Medical Products Administration, the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Natural Resources will incorporate five regulatory documents into the scope of online declaration and online processing to further improve the efficiency of customs clearance。The five regulatory documents are: Import drug Clearance Form, Gold and gold products Import and export Permit, bank transfer of RMB banknotes import and export Certificate, Legal fishing products customs clearance Certificate, paleontologic fossil exit approval。In addition to special circumstances such as confidentiality and security, all import and export supervision documents will be declared and handled online by the end of this year, and the goal of "comprehensive online declaration and online processing" proposed by The State Council in the Work Plan to optimize the business environment at ports and promote cross-border trade facilitation will be achieved one year in advance。
According to reports, in addition to these two initiatives, since the beginning of this year, various departments have further increased the streamlining of regulatory documents and accompanying documents。Starting from January 1, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs issued an announcement to cancel the automatic import licenses for a total of 118 commodities in 15 categories。Since June 1, the General Administration of Customs and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange have completely canceled the customs verification and verification of customs declaration receipt and foreign exchange payment certificate and processing trade verification。
Four measures were taken to improve the efficiency of customs clearance
In order to further optimize the process and improve the efficiency of customs clearance, the General Administration of Customs will launch the pilot reform of the "two-step declaration" customs clearance mode of import summary declaration and complete declaration in Huangpu Customs, Shenzhen Customs and Qingdao Customs before August 31, 2019。At the same time, on the basis of the experience gained, we will conscientiously summarize and evaluate, and gradually spread it to the whole country。
According to reports, this reform is an important customs clearance reform measure to adapt to the characteristics of international trade and the needs of security facilitation。Under this customs clearance mode, enterprises do not need to submit all declaration information and documents at one time, and the entire submission process can be divided into two steps。The first step, the enterprise with the bill of lading information, submit the relevant information needed for port security access declaration, "summary declaration"。In this case, if the goods do not require further inspection, they can be released immediately。For tax-related goods, after providing tax guarantee, they may also be released for removal。In the second step, within 14 days after the goods are released at the port, the enterprise shall supplement the relevant information and documents needed to meet the overall supervision of tax collection and administration, conformity assessment, customs statistics and so on。For enterprises to pay tax on tax-related goods, enterprises can choose the appropriate time to complete the tax payment within 15 days as stipulated in the Customs Law。
At the same time, the General Administration of Customs has also launched a series of other measures together with relevant departments。Before August 31, 2019, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the General Administration of Customs will further expand the scope of insurance companies in the trial of tariff guarantee insurance and further promote the reform of diversified tax guarantee systems such as tariff guarantee insurance。By December 31, 2019，The port administration departments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall formulate and make public the operation time limits of port operation service enterprises, such as intra-yard transfer, lifting of containers, emptying of containers and lifting of containers by cargo parties;The General Administration of Customs, together with relevant departments and local governments, opened the "Green Channel" for rapid customs clearance of agricultural and sideline products at the Hekou - Laojie Port on the China-Vietnam border and the Khorgos - Nuraer Port on the China-Kazakhstan border.，We coordinated and promoted the opening of "green channels" at the Manzhouli-Houbaigarsk and Suifenhe-Bograni border ports between China and Russia。
Building a "single window" to reduce port charges
"Single window" is an important measure to optimize the business environment of ports and improve the facilitation of customs clearance, and is also an international practice。According to Party Yingjie, up to now, the "single window" of international trade has realized the system docking and information sharing with 25 ministries and commissions, launched the network cooperation projects between 68 departments, and provided 495 service items for enterprises, and the business covers all ports in the country。
The reporter was informed，The General Administration of Customs will continue to deepen the construction of a "single window" for international trade together with relevant departments，We will speed up cooperation with civil aviation, ports and railways，Provide full "one-stop" customs clearance logistics information service for market players;By the end of 2019，The main service application rate reached 100%，The application rate of other services increased across the board。At the same time, the transportation and port management departments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities will accelerate the paperless operation of ports, and by the end of 2019, coastal ports will realize enterprises to handle container equipment handover, suitcase operation plan declaration, cost settlement and other procedures on the Internet。
Reducing port charges is the most direct business environment for enterprises to feel。Huang Guansheng introduced that last year, a leading group for clearing port charges led by the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Market Regulation was set up to coordinate the work of port fee reduction and achieved positive results。Up to now，The number of items charged for port operation services has been reduced from 15 to 11，The exchange rate standard for cargo port fees and port facility security fees was lowered by 15 percent and 20 percent, respectively，Cosco Shipping, Maersk and other 62 shipping companies have taken the initiative to announce a series of charges such as reduced terminal operating fees，That's 5% to 10% lower than before。
In the next stage, the relevant departments will continue to strengthen supervision and inspection under the unified deployment of the leading group for clearing port charges。The measures introduced this time propose that before September 30, 2019, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Commerce will guide and supervise major international liner transport companies and international freight forwarding companies, effectively implement fee reduction measures, and enhance the sense of gain of import and export enterprises。The State Administration for Market Regulation has carried out special supervision of import and export charges, investigated and punished illegal charges according to law, and investigated suspected monopoly port operation service units and enterprises。
It is understood that optimizing the port business environment plays a significant role in supporting and promoting the development of foreign trade。According to customs statistics, the port import and export traffic of some provinces and cities increased significantly, and the overall increase of ports in Tianjin, Hainan, Shandong and other places from January to May was in a leading position in the country。Among them, Tianjin water port import traffic increased by 46.5%, due to the adoption of a series of measures such as the announcement of the "sunshine price", advance declaration, and direct lifting of the ship side, which greatly improved the business environment of Tianjin port。