China’s 22 customs projects in e-commerce

China has continued to use specific modes of customs clearance supervision to support its cross-border e-commerce pilot projects.

As part of this, the China Customs Administration conducted the pilot program for business-to-business export in cross-border e-commerce in 22 customs offices in 2020, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In general, China applies different customs procedures in certain areas, sometimes on an experimental basis, to determine their effectiveness.

For now, the WTO indicates that special customs procedures are maintained to facilitate customs formalities for importers (and exporters) of multiple batches of seasonal, fresh, perishable, difficult to store and dangerous goods, as well as goods under customs control exported or imported by China through road ports.

Customs

In 2018, China had proposed four new customs clearance supervision modes to support cross-border e-commerce pilot projects (general exports, exports to special zones, direct purchase imports, and e-commerce imports under customs control), three new modes of supervision for cross-border e-commerce, and a customs clearance information management system for cross-border e-commerce retail imports and exports had been established.

There are now some 163 «special zones under customs supervision» there, governed by their respective regulations; 39.3% are in the experimental free zones.

Among other things, these zones are dedicated to processing traffic, logistics activities and provision of services under customs control.

The State Council approves the special zones under China’s supervision, and the Customs Administration supervises them.

There are six types of special zones under customs supervision: bonded zones, export processing zones, logistics parks under customs control, free ports, integrated free zones, and cross-border industrial zones.

Since 2018, there have been no major changes to its rules and regulations, according to the WTO.

There have also been no changes to China’s customs valuation rules and procedures since then.

These provisions are contained in GACC Decree No. 2013 and were notified to the WTO in 2018. The customs value is determined on the basis of the transaction value, and when the transaction value cannot be used, the other valuation methods are applied on a first-come, first-served basis. successively, as stipulated in the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement.