Beijing speeds up customs clearance with 'two-step' process

In order to enhance the business environment and facilitate international trade, Beijing Customs recently launched an initiative to separate the procedure of safety access supervision from procedural customs clearance. On Aug 27, the first customs declaration through this "two-step" mode was cleared at the Beijing Customs office in Chaoyang district.

According to Beijing Customs, enterprises previously had to submit 105 declaration items for its imported goods. Under the new "two-step" mode, the first step requires only a summary declaration that reduces the items of declaration to either nine or 15 depending on the qualifications of the enterprises, after which the enterprises may pick up their goods from the customs. The enterprises can later process the second step, which requires them to finish the complete declaration procedure and other clearance processes such as tax filings within 14 days from the date of entry of the means of transport.

Jin Hai, director of the General Department of the General Administration of Customs, said that the most important feature of the "two-step" declaration is to separate the procedure of safety access supervision that must be implemented at the port from procedural customs clearance. By doing so, imported goods are well supervised, while procedures for customs clearance are simplified to free up time. This simultaneously speeds up the whole process while maintaining manageability.

Yang Zhenghua, customs affairs manager at Beijing Dymos Transmission, gave "a warm welcome" to this new initiative. She said her company is now able to pick up goods after submitting nine basic declarations, which helped to reduce cost and enhance efficiency at the same time.

Customs officials are hoping the "two-step" declaration process to be fully implemented nationwide by Jan 1, 2020, and that about 600,000 enterprises engaged in import would choose this customs clearance mode.