Written by Chief Correspondent Chen Libing / Translated by Mao Yuye

Beibu Gulf Economic Zone Simplifies Clearance Process to Offer a “Green Channel” for Importers & Exporters

Written by Chief Correspondent Chen Libing / Translated by Mao Yuye

The China-ASEAN Pilot Zone for Border Trade Inspection and Quarantine in Pingxiang, Guangxi, unveiled on September 10, 2016, adopts an integrated inspection and quarantine mechanism to speed up the clearance process and lower the cost. It takes only two hours to fi nish the whole process — inspection, quarantine and clearance — of a car of fruits imported from Vietnam; it takes importers or exporters just 20 seconds to fi nish the submission of inspection and quarantine information by using a mobile app.

Pingxiang, a city of Guangxi bordered to Vietnam, boasts the largest quantity and scale of ports and a fl ourish border trade market. Therefore, Pingxiang is chosen to be the pilot zone for border inspection and quarantine in order to integrate clearance facilitation and supervision efficiency. Drawing on such a best practice, Beibu Gulf Economic Zone (BGEZ) has also created greater regional trade facilitation and revenue than ever before.

Pilot reform to facilitate customs clearance

In recent years, as China-ASEAN economic cooperation increasingly deepens and Guangxi is stepping up its opening trade, the original function and scale of ports cannot satisfy the mushrooming foreign trade and need to be upgraded. Besides, there are some problems like the complicated, inefficient and high-cost clearance process and epidemics brought by the fl ow of people and goods due to unsound law enforcement and coordination mechanism and diversified modes of border trade. So, how to search for effective and convenient inspection and quarantine supervision mode to facilitate clearance, and how to promote the close cooperation between inspection sectors in BGEZ?

In this regard, since the deepening reform of BGEZ began in 2014, the clearance mode in Guangxi has undertaken reforms of “Three Ones” (One Declaration, One Inspection and One Clearance), “One Pass for Goods from Six Cities”and the “Single Window”, which hold the key to the regional economic development.

“Three Ones” (One Declaration, One Inspection and One Clearance) was launched at both Fangchenggang Port and Pingxiang Port in November 2014, and then was applied to other ports in Guangxi, thus speeding up the clearance process and upgrading the clearance quality.

Guangxi Electronic Port Logistics Linkage System started to be in operation on July 1, 2015, marking a substantial progress of “One Pass for Goods from Six Cities”. Imported and exported goods can be transferred between Yongzhou Customs, Beihai Customs, Nanning Bonded Logistics Center, Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area, Pingxiang Integrated Free Trade Zone without need to apply for transit permit.

The “Single Window” for Guangxi international trade operated online in December 2015 requires importers or exporters to submit application information only once and then relevant customs sectors will get what they need and send feedback to importers or exporters through the “Single Window”. The platform has significantly improved the review effi ciency and saved 30-50% of the cost of manual work and transport due to the paperless work and the decrease of workload.

What’s more, China-ASEAN Pilot Zone for Border Trade Inspection and Quarantine and the backbone system of e-CIQ put in use since September 2016 has greatly integrated the clearance facilitation and supervision efficiency. As a result, Guangxi’s international trade still achieved a growth against such a challenging trade environment and many international trade companies also benefi ted from the reform. It is learned that Guangxi had a total volume of international trade of 319.03 billion yuan, up by 15%; the time for clearance process was cut down by 2.1 hours; and the cost of import or export transit in Guangxi decreased by 20-30%.

Huang Hanjun, general manager of Guangxi Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area Guanan Trading Co., Ltd., said that the effective steps for clearance facilitation taken by customs sectors in Guangxi reduced a lot on the clearance cost for international trade companies. In 2015, Guanan imported 300 thousand liter of red wine, up by six times than that in 2014.

Improve work mechanism to break down barriers between customs districts

Situated at the junction of Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Zone and a few regional economic zones in six provincesof the Southwest China, BGEZ cooperates and interacts more with Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan in recent years. Guangxi officially joined the inclusion in the reform of Guangdong’s customs regional clearance integration in May 2015. The reform aims to break down barriers hindering customs clearance and to achieve regional mutual recognition and connectivity， the integration of 11 customs in four provinces by building the clearance mode “One Center, Four Platforms”. Since the regional clearance integration linkage in reform area was launched on July 1, 2015, the time of customs clearance process in the region was down from 6.54 hours to 4.44 hours.

For the moment, all of importers and exporters in the four provinces of the Pan-Pearl River Delta regional cooperation— Hainan, Guangdong, Fujian, and Guangxi — can choose places of declaration, tax paying, inspection and pass according to their logistics demands. For example, importers or exporters in the four provinces can choose the port of clearance, transit regulation, “declaration in the original place, clearance at port”,“declaration and clearance at port” and regional clearance integration. At the same time, importers or exporters can fi nish customs recognition involving preliminary appraisal of price, classifi cation and confi rmation at original places, ending with the mutual recognition by the four provinces.

It is learned that over the year of reform in customs clearance integration within the four provinces, the cost of transit clearance reduced by 20-30%, the time of the entry into Nanning Bonded Logistics Center economized by 50% and the recording effi ciency improved by over 30%.

Renewing improvements in regional clearance

Clearance simplification and integration is part of deepening reform of BGEZ and the active attempt to broaden the cooperation between Guangxi and ASEAN. The reform of clearance facilitation has backed vigorously the rapid economic development of BGEZ.

It is said that the “Single Window” at present provides a customs information network with BGEZ ports. On such a basis, by drawing on the best practice of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, Guangxi should further apply the single window to the areas along the border, inland rivers, railways and aviation ports, upgrade the intelligent port to a wisdom one and level up comprehensive services of ports, so as to contribute to the upgrading of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.

In addition, Guangxi should further promote the clearance mode of “Two Countries, One Inspection” with Vietnam and with Malaysia at the advantage of its land-sea closeness with Vietnam and preferential policies brought by China-Malaysia“Two Countries, Twin Parks”. At present, this clearance mode is welcomed by Vietnamese and Malaysian counterparts, who decided collectively to choose the Friendship Pass —Friendship International Port, Qinzhou Port and Kuantan Port as the pilot zones. In the near future, fresh fruits and aquatic and marine products produced by ASEAN countries and even other parts of the world are sure to be transferred to the Chinese mainland in a shorter time.

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