Several Measures of Beijing Customs District for Supporting the Capital's High-Level Opening Up and High-Quality Development
To promote effective quality improvement and steady growth for the capital's open economy, Beijing Customs District has introduced the following measures in support of the high-level opening up and high-quality development of the capital.
I. Platform Optimization
(I) Contribute to the efforts to push the "Two Zones" development in the direction of higher level opening up. To advance the development of the Integrated National Demonstration Zone for Opening up the Services Sector and implement the upgrading of the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone, Beijing Customs District will implement customs policies in such fields as aviation maintenance, pharmaceutical e-commerce, duty-free shop distribution, cultural trade, and bio-medicine, so as to advance the reform and opening up on a higher level and make new achievements in the development of the "Two Zones".
(II) Support the high-quality development of the Beijing Comprehensive Bonded Zone. Beijing Customs District will actively serve and guide the construction, operation, development and performance evaluation of the Beijing Comprehensive Bonded Zone. It will support and promote the Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone in ensuring steady growth in major businesses such as culture, medicine and e-commerce. Measures likewise will include support for the Daxing Airport Comprehensive Bonded Zone in the launch of pilot projects such as the 1210 online shopping bonded import business, cross-system insurance exemptions and pharmaceutical e-commerce, among others. Beijing Customs District will support the establishment of the Zhongguancun Comprehensive Bonded Zone featuring research and development and innovation and Beijing's applications for the establishment of new comprehensive bonded zones.
(III) Support the building of the demonstration zone for creative promotion of import trade within the Beijing Capital International Airport Economic Zone. In line with the demonstration zone’s functional positioning of trade promotion and innovation in trade, Beijing Customs District will provide policy support for bonded aviation materials maintenance, cultural trade, and parallel vehicle import warehousing and in other fields, so as to help build a leading demonstration zone for creative promotion of import trade with Beijing characteristics which can serve as a strategic connecting point for the domestic and international circulations.
(IV) Provide customs support for Beijing's preparations for the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS). Beijing Customs District will assign dedicated coordinators to guide CIFTIS-related customs procedures, open dedicated service windows for CIFTIS-related customs clearance, and provide customs clearance service by reservation 24/7. Exhibits listed as cross-border e-commerce retail imports will be qualified for sales as bonded cross-border e-commerce retail imports after the exhibition. Beijing Customs District will also ensure the implementation of preferential tax policies on imported exhibits sold during CIFTIS and strive to extend the policies to the year 2024 and beyond. Finally, bonded warehousing, display, and trading of unsold artworks and cultural relics can continue after the scheduled CIFTIS events.
(V) Provide a package of services for the development of the headquarters economy. Beijing Customs District will provide technical support regarding tax collection and management for headquarters enterprises and introduce a coordination mechanism for approved headquarters enterprises in Beijing, drawing up a uniform valuation management plan for royalties and special economic relations. Key enterprises in Beijing pursuing overseas development will receive training in international valuation rules to enhance their competitiveness on the international stage. An integrated bonded supervision model will be created for headquarters enterprises, allowing enterprises to collect materials and parts among themselves at any time. Eligible headquarters enterprises and their subsidiaries will likewise be encouraged to apply for AEO enterprise status and enjoy a wide range of facilitation measures. A dedicated window will be established for the entry of goods associated with eligible high-end talents employed by headquarters enterprises so that relevant customs clearance procedures can be completed smoothly. Finally, services related to physical examinations for foreign personnel entering China to work for headquarters enterprises will be optimized, including free expedited service and voluntary health certificate express delivery service for foreign employees who have urgent needs. Relevant certificates can be provided on the day of the physical examination.
II. Customs Clearance Optimization
(VI) Smooth the "dual hub" air transport chennels. Beijing Customs District will promote Beijing’s Dual-Hub Airport Integrated Service Platform project so as to create the leading "dual-hub" e-freight transportation model in China. It will support the diversification of designated regulatory sites at Daxing Airport and create high-level, modern and professional regulatory sites. It will also help Daxing Airport build express delivery sites under customs regulation and conducting 9610 import and export businesses in express delivery and cross-border e-commerce.
(VII) Smooth shipping channels. Beijing Customs District will leverage Tianjin Port's access to the sea, increase "collection upon arrival" and "loading upon arrival" and deepen cooperation with Tianjin Customs District to further optimize the operation model and improve service quality.
(VIII) Smooth postal routes. Beijing Customs District will seize the opportunity coming with the relocation of the Xinshun Mail Supervision Site to improve its operation model in cooperation with postal services, achieve more intelligent operation, speed up mail processing, and make postal service regulation more intelligent, efficient, intensive, rigorous, secure and convenient, thus better satisfying the needs of the general public.
(IX) Smooth cross-border e-commerce channels. Beijing Customs District will contribute to the launch of the new development model of cross-border e-commerce featuring online-offline integration in Beijing, vigorously support the Wangfujing Scitech Outlet Offline Store Pilot Project, and help develop Beijing into an international consumption center.
(X) Consolidate the achievement in reducing the total time of customs clearance. Beijing Customs District will encourage enterprises to adopt two-step declaration or do customs declaration in advance and implement supporting policy measures such as summary taxation, diversified guarantee, active disclosure, and the fault-tolerance mechanism to improve the efficiency of customs clearance for imports and exports and ensure a reasonable time frame for customs clearance.
III Business Environment Optimization
(XI) Continuously improve the port business environment. Beijing Customs District will launch a special action aimed at cross-border trade facilitation in 2023, and roll out innovative measures with Beijing characteristics. Beijing Customs District will make active efforts to implement Beijing’s reform measures for business environment optimization (Version 6.0) and launch relevant pilot projects according to the actual conditions. In line with the World Bank's new evaluation system, Beijing Customs District will do in-depth research on how to align with rules of international trade, so as to make the port business environment more international. Focus will be put on all-round institutional opening up and reforms and innovations on all links to continuously advance cross-border trade facilitation. The optimization of the port business environment will be combined with lowering institutional transaction cost for market entities and relief measures for enterprises in difficulty to deliver more help and benefits to enterprises and inject new vitality into market entities.
(XII) Continuously enhance the integrated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Beijing Customs District will strengthen the customs clearance guarantee mechanism for key enterprises in the industry chains and supply chains of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei customs districts and expand the existing list of key enterprises. Cooperation between Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei customs districts will be deepened with regular work coordination mechanisms established to promote higher-quality development with a more broad perspective. Beijing Customs District will implement the Framework Agreement on Business Environment Integration in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and on Cross-border Trade Cooperation and help build a pattern of regional economic development featuring complementarity and mutual promotion.
(XIII) Continuously promote the implementation of preferential trade agreements such as the RCEP. Beijing Customs District will ramp up policy education for AEO enterprises in Beijing, new member states of relevant agreements, and related import and export enterprises in key industries. Beijing Customs District will continue to promote intelligent verification and self-help printing of certificates of origin to fully benefit enterprises.
(XIV) Provide high-quality tariff-related technical services for local enterprises. Beijing Customs District will give priority to AEO enterprises and specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and innovative enterprises in providing support in classification, pricing and preliminary place of origin verdicts, so as to help them address technical difficulties in customs clearance and prevent possible tariff-related disputes that may arise during customs clearance by moving the tariff collection and the management review forward. It will continue to distribute tariff technology policy service package to enterprises in key industries as a way of targeted service provision.
(XV) Continuously unleash the dividends of the tax collection and management reform. Beijing Customs District will continue to advance the reform of summary taxation and diverse tax guarantee, enhance policy dissemination, encourage enterprises to make good use the policies of clearance before taxation, summary taxation and one letter of indemnity for tax guarantee nationwide. Taxes payable for multiple imports and exports within a certain period of time will be collected lump sum and an enterprise’s tax guarantee can be used at any customs district after filing the general guarantee information with a local customs authority, thus reducing financial burden on enterprises.
(XVI) Carry out initiatives such as "Customs commissioner delivers policies to the door", "a hundred officials enter communities" and "customs policies reach every household". Beijing Customs District will send staff members to grass-root level enterprises and solve their problems with concrete efforts, so as to further enhance enterprises' awareness of customs policies and sense of gain, and polish the image of the customs as an amiable, respectful, and trustworthy authority.
(XVII) Proactively provide customs statistics services. Beijing Customs District will join Beijing's effort to strengthen the monitoring, forecasting and early warning based on economic operation big data, improve communication and cooperation with relevant municipal departments, and provide sound data support services within the framework of the data management requirements of the General Administration of Customs.
IV Optimization Efforts for Industries
(XVIII) Focus on the cutting-edge achievements to contribute to the innovation-driven development of the medicine and health industry. Beijing Customs District will work with the relevant municipal departments to bring about further improvements to the "white list" system for imported items for research and development use, and facilitate customs clearance for enterprises involved in pharmaceutical research and development. Beijing Customs District will further optimize the risk assessment model for special items and reduce the number of homogeneous assessments for enterprises. For the entry quarantine of stem cells and other humanized cells for clinical trials, approval at one customs site will allow use of the items at multiple places for clinical trials.
(XIX) Promote the high-quality upgrading of the integrated circuit industry. Beijing Customs District will include the equipment, raw materials, and consumables imported by enterprises in the integrated circuit industry in the intelligent tax reduction and exemption confirmation support system, and use the ERP networked declaration + quick review model to further streamline approval procedures. Beijing Customs District will connect import tax reduction and exemption policies with diverse tax guarantees and encourage integrated circuit enterprises to launch enterprise-specific tax guarantees to reduce the amount of idle capital and improve customs clearance efficiency. Finally, Beijing Customs District will seek to implement the installment-based tax policy for integrated circuit enterprises.
(XX) Promote the introduction of germplasm resources to help revitalize the seed industry. Beijing Customs District will make good use of the green channel for inspection to accelerate the safe and efficient introduction of pilot germplasm resources and contribute to Beijing’s action plan for the revitalization the seed industry.
(XXI) Optimize the inspection model to ensure a smooth high-tech industry chain. For the equipment and materials imported by high-tech enterprises in Beijing for their own use, Beijing Customs District will adopt on a trial basis the "quality assurance and conformity verification" inspection and supervision model to further speed up customs clearance for imported equipment and materials, streamline the supply chain, and help enterprises speed up their research and development as well as production processes.
(XXII) Strengthen policy support to aid the development of the new energy industry. Beijing Customs District will focus on the new energy industry including solar cells, electric passenger vehicles, and lithium batteries, do more to enhance the credit of new energy enterprises, and provide more convenient services. Reform will be rolled out to allow companies within a single group to enjoy free circulation of bonded materials and parts, improve the efficiency of internal resource circulation, reduce production costs, and pave the way to overseas markets for new energy enterprises.
(XXIII) Help with the recovery and expansion of the consumer goods industry. Beijing Customs District will optimize and improve import and export processes for food and cosmetics samples for research and development purposes and help food and cosmetics enterprises expand imports and exports. Beijing Customs District will make more efforts to recommend producers of exported food for overseas registration, help them understand the laws and regulations of importing countries, enhance technical guidance for relevant enterprises, and actively support food enterprises in exploring the international market. Admissibility management will be adopted for the inspection of imported clothing so that imported clothing within in the admissibility list may be inspected by an admissibility agency and enjoy facilitation measures of customs authorities such as exemption from sample testing based on the inspection results issued by the admissibility agency.
(XXIV) Make full and good use of tax policies to serve industrial development. Preferential policies of tax reduction and exemption will apply to imports for the purposes of scientific and technological innovation by eligible scientific research institutions, technology development institutions, and education institutions. Tax policy surveys will cover industries such as integrated circuits, healthcare, new energy vehicles, and agriculture to inform relevant tax policy improvement and provide effective policy support for the development of key industries to enhance their competitiveness in the international market by improving the structure of tariff items, setting provisional tax rates, and including relevant industries in the tax exemption list.
(XXV) Contribute to the development of Beijing's convention and exhibition industry with active efforts. Beijing Customs District will explore ways to diversify guarantee for exhibits, allowing enterprises to complete guarantee procedures by means of deposit, letter of guarantee, or tariff guarantee insurance based on their own conditions. Inbound and outbound exhibits will be allowed free flow in and out of the comprehensive bonded zone, thus improving trade facilitation. Exhibit supervision will be better facilitated and more intelligent as high-tech equipment such as non-invasive artwork identification devices will be used to reduce customs regulation risks. Beijing Customs District will support the efforts of Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau and other departments to advance development of the platform where all procedures required for one event or scenario in Beijing’s convention and exhibition industry can be completed through one channel and exhibition filing data can be shared among all relevant authorities.
(XXVI) Strengthen monitoring of imports and exports of key industries, commodities and enterprises in Beijing to and from countries along the Belt and Road. Beijing Customs District will do analysis on hot spots such as integrated circuits, medicine and health, agricultural products, specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and innovative "little giant" enterprises, and countries along the Belt and Road to provide useful information for Beijing's economic and social development.