Announcement of Concrete Measures to Continuous Improve the Port Business Environment of Beijing and Tianjin to Promote Cross-border Trade Facilitation

Beijing and Tianjin Joint Announcement No. 5

In order to fully implement the decisions and plans of CPC Central Committee and the State Council on the optimization of business environment, deepen reform and innovation, and continuously improve cross-border trade facilitation, concrete measures are developed based on actual conditions and announced as follows:

1. Reducing some charge standards subject to government pricing. Since April 1, 2019, the charging rates for port dues on cargo, port facility security fees, pilotage (transfer) fees, and tugboat fees for domestic routes have been reduced by 15%, 20%, 10% and 5% respectively.

2. Merging charge items. The yard storage fees and storage area fees should be combined as storage area fee. Water (material) supply service charges, oil (gas) supply service charges, power supply service charges should be combined as the ship supply service charges. Garbage collection and treatment service charges and oily water collection and treatment service charges should be combined as the ship pollutant collection and treatment service charges.

3. Port operators, piloting institutions, and other units shall strictly implement government-set prices, implement the charges catalogues and releasing systems of port operation and service. Relevant agency enterprises are prohibited from overcharging or increasing pricing standards or charging mandatory fees by all means, when they collect and pay port dues on cargo, port facility security fees and other fees fixed by the government on behalf of others.

4. Promote the reduction of operating service charges. Efforts shall be made to encourage competition, break monopoly, and promote the reduction of operation charges at the port service link.

5. Establish the fault tolerance mechanism for "advance declaration". For "declaration in advance", if the date of import is changed, or the means of transportation are changed due to loading, stowage and other reasons, such alterations will not be considered and recorded as customs declaration errors. The customs declaration unit may apply to the Customs for review through the "Authority-Enterprise Cooperation Platform" within 15 working days from the date of the relevant customs error records. After being reviewed by the Enterprise Administration of Customs, such errors will be corrected, and it is not necessary to make onsite submission of paper application and supporting materials at the customs declaration units. The review duration has been reduced to 3 working days from the original 15 working days. Review of the corrected customs error records should not be considered as the records of credit status of the enterprise for customs.

Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau (Port Office of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality)

Tianjin Municipal Commerce Bureau (Port Office of the People's Government of Tianjin Municipality)

Beijing Customs District People's Republic of China

Tianjin Customs District People's Republic of China

April 19, 2019