News
China’s State Council recently announced the nation will develop an electronic customs system—under which inland, coastal and border municipalities will cooperate with each other—to improve the efficiency of customs formalities for the five years from 2016 to 2020.
The announcement indicated that China will optimize its customs-clearance procedures by 2020. To this end, the economy will establish a partnership among the customs authorities of local governments in inland, coastal and border municipalities, and a structure of interregional cooperation for customs services. It will also promote information sharing and consolidate management standards of the divisions of different local governments engaged in similar responsibilities. Beijing will also encourage these divisions to help each other in management and law enforcement.
In the first phase (2014-2015), China will develop a platform for sharing customs management among coastal ports, simplify and/or consolidate certificate formats and data standards, and establish a new declaration system for users to be able to complete formalities for several different departments at single stops.
In the second phase (2016-2017), Beijing will revise relevant laws to reform port and harbor management and make other efforts.
To establish an efficient information-sharing scheme, the central government will in the final phase (2018-2020) extend the mechanism for making arrangements among related departments in overall local communities to inland and border municipalities.
