China's new clearance system to help small exporters: media

A new clearance system has been rolled out in China for cross-border business-to-business e-commerce since July 1, which could promote the "Made in China, sold on Amazon" business model well liked by Chinese merchants, South China Morning Post reported Tuesday.

After applied in dozens of designated areas, the system has now been implemented nationwide, "to promote healthy and orderly development of cross-border e-commerce and to help the expansion of Chinese companies in international markets," SCMP reported, citing a statement from the General Administration of Customs on June 22.

The new customs administration model has made it possible that exporters can sell their goods through e-commerce platforms abroad, like Amazon and eBay, and quickly ship the goods to overseas warehouses as long as the seller, the platform and the shipping company register their information with Chinese customs.

Wu Guoxiong, director of Shenzhen-based Guanghe Law Firm's customs law committee, said general customs clearing procedures are tailored for big exporters with "several containers of goods", but for small exporters who sell small parcels to many consumers, allowing them to bundle them into one delivery to a given warehouse will be a big help, which "will help boost exports of medium, small and micro exporters," SCMP reported.

Last year, China set up 46 new pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce on top of the previous 59, in a bid to promote exports during the pandemic. Companies in the pilot zones will enjoy support policies including exemption of value-added and excise taxes on retail exports and more favorable corporate tax rates. In addition, the government is encouraging companies to jointly build and share overseas warehouses.

The country's e-commerce exports surged over 40 percent year-on-year in 2020 to 1.12 trillion yuan ($178 billion), customs data showed. While this new form of cross-border trade accounted for only 6 percent of China's total exports, its growth is far stronger than the 4 percent in the country's exports last year, as people across the world flocked to online shopping during the pandemic, SCMP said.