□ our reporter Liu Xin
RCEP agreement covers 15 countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and ten ASEAN countries. It is a free trade agreement with the largest economic and trade scale, the largest population and the greatest development potential in the world.
The reporter learned from the General Administration of customs that among the 701 binding obligations of the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP), the General Administration of Customs alone or jointly acts as the responsible department, accounting for 24.8%. In order to ensure the smooth implementation of RCEP, the Customs Department has carried out a number of work from the content of the agreement to consolidate the foundation.
In terms of rules of origin and tariff concessions, the General Administration of Customs focuses on the possible difficulties and pain points in the implementation of RCEP rules of origin and tariff concessions, and follows the principle of “fast is fast”, Solidly complete 38 specific tasks: first, issue the measures of the customs of the people’s Republic of China for the administration of approved exporters, the measures of the customs of the people’s Republic of China for the administration of the origin of import and export goods under the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement and supporting announcements. As the first batch of regulations on the administration of origin issued after the integration of customs and inspection, the supporting normative document aims to enhance the standardization and consistency of customs law enforcement across the country. Second, according to the new and complex implementation requirements of RCEP tariff concession mode and rules of origin, comprehensively upgrade the customs origin management information system, rebuild 763 business nodes, optimize the declaration mode and declaration form structure of preferential goods, realize the shared application of visa data and customs clearance data, and build origin management A three-dimensional customs supervision and service network combining enterprise management and commodity management. Third, complete the revision of product specific rules of origin and consultation on the implementation guidelines of origin, make use of the professional and technical advantages of origin, promote the Chinese scheme to become the consensus of all parties, and remove obstacles to the implementation and entry into force of the agreement.
In terms of customs procedures and trade facilitation, the General Administration of Customs continued to optimize customs clearance processes, improve customs clearance efficiency and reduce customs clearance costs from six aspects, including the implementation of the central “six stabilities” and “six guarantees”, combined the implementation of RCEP related trade facilitation measures with the deepening of the reform of “release control services”, and continued to promote the simplification of import and export regulatory documents. Up to now, the number of regulatory certificates to be verified in the import and export links has been reduced from 86 in 2018 to 41, a decrease of 52.3%. Except for special circumstances such as confidentiality, the remaining 38 regulatory certificates can all realize online application, online verification and paperless customs clearance through the “single window” of international trade; Further clean up and standardize port charges, urge and guide local port regulatory authorities to implement the list system of port charges, strengthen dynamic updating, ensure that there are no charges outside the list, and improve the transparency and comparability of port charges; Promote “two-step declaration” and “declaration in advance”, constantly optimize the operation process, standardize and simplify the customs supervision procedures, and vigorously promote RCEP members to optimize their operation processes, standardize and simplify the customs supervision procedures, and jointly review the customs procedures under the guidance of “creating a good customs clearance environment for legitimate trade in the region”.
At the same time, the General Administration of Customs specially formulated a plan to promote the mutual recognition and implementation of AEO between China and RCEP Member States, and defined specific implementation plans and measures. Among the 10 members of RCEP that have established AEO system, China has signed AEO mutual recognition arrangements with five of them, completed mutual recognition consultations with Malaysia, and is actively promoting mutual recognition cooperation with four countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines; In response to RCEP’s provisions on encouraging members to announce the release time, the General Administration of Customs announces the overall customs clearance time of import and export goods at the national and provincial levels to all provinces (regions and cities) every quarter, so as to further enhance the transparency and predictability of import and export customs clearance time. According to statistics, in November 2021, the overall customs clearance time of imports across the country was 35.87 hours, 63.17% lower than that in 2017; The overall customs clearance time for exports was 1.57 hours, 87.23% lower than that in 2017.
In terms of animal and plant quarantine, food safety and import and export commodity inspection, the General Administration of Customs takes advantage of the strong complementarity between China and RCEP members in the field of animal and plant quarantine cooperation to comprehensively sort out the entry Shenzhen Agricultural Products Group Co.Ltd(000061) access mechanism and promote China’s high-quality Shenzhen Agricultural Products Group Co.Ltd(000061) export; Strengthen the sharing of animal and plant epidemic information with RCEP members, promote international epidemic monitoring cooperation, and promote the upgrading and launching of China ASEAN animal and plant quarantine and food safety cooperation information network; The amendment and promulgation of the law on import and export commodity inspection makes it clear that the customs can accept the test results of inspection institutions at home and abroad and implement catalog management on the acceptance institutions, so as to provide a new attempt and exploration for the cooperation of conformity assessment procedures of Member States under the framework of RCEP, strengthen the attention and Research on relevant technical trade measures of RCEP members, and urge them to fulfill their transparency obligations, Provide early warning services to Chinese enterprises.
(International Business Daily)
