Joint Announcement of Beijing and Tianjin No.8

All relevant units and departments:

For the purpose of implementing the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on deepening the reforms to "streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation and upgrade services" to optimize business environment, and in order to carry out the special campaign of the General Administration of Customs and meet the work requirements of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, and further optimize the business environment at Beijing ports and Tianjin ports, the commerce bureau (port office), customs authorities, transport commission, market regulation bureau, tax bureau and other government authorities in Beijing and Tianjin have jointly formulated the Announcement of Several Measures on Further Optimizing the Business Environment at Beijing Ports and Tianjin Ports to Promote Cross-Border Trade Facilitation (Joint Announcement of Beijing and Tianjin No.8), which is hereby issued to you for earnest implementation.      

The above is hereby notified.

The eighth batch of reform and innovation measures have been launched to further optimize the business environment at Beijing ports and Tianjin ports. The Announcement is hereby made as follows:

Ⅰ. Further simplify the handling of documents 

1. Cancel the import license for solid waste. Starting from January 1, 2021, the acceptance, examination and approval of applications for import licenses for solid waste that is under the category of import restrictions and can be used as raw materials will be stopped.

2. Further the reform of paperless licenses. Starting from January 1, 2021, the import license of encryption products and equipment containing cryptographic technology, and the export license of commercial encryption products will be consolidated into the import and export license for dual-use items and technologies. The application for the import and export license for dual-use items and related customs clearance process will go paperless in Beijing and Tianjin.

Ⅱ. Relentlessly advance the reform of customs clearance regulatory model

3. Deepen the reform of "two-step declaration". The scope of application of "two-step declaration" will be gradually expanded, allowing enterprises to adopt "two-step declaration" for bulk commodities and goods in transit. If an eligible enterprise selects the mode of "consolidated tax collection" in its customs declaration form under the "two-step declaration" mechanism, it shall finish the consolidated tax payment after the process of declaration and tax calculation, and shall not be later than the end of the 5th working day of the next month.

4. Further optimize the error tolerance mechanism. We will refine the error tolerance mechanism, and streamline the types of errors. Declaration errors shall not be recorded if an enterprise changes the means of transport for goods due to loading and shipment, import date amendment and other factors, so as to further provide convenience for enterprises to correct and amend their customs declaration, improve the error tolerance rate, and facilitate enterprises to adopt the model of "advance declaration" and "two-step declaration".

5. Promote the reform of regulatory model. Efforts will be made to optimize regulatory operations, promote the connection of "two-step declaration" for imported goods and "two-stage access" regulatory operations, and advance the "two-stage access" regulatory model in an all-round manner.

6. Increase the time-efficiency and transparency of customs clearance. The overall import clearance time of the top 100 customs brokers in terms of import declaration business volume will be published on a quarterly basis. Enterprises will be encouraged to extensively adopt new models such as "advance declaration" and "two-step declaration" to further reduce the overall customs clearance time.

7. Improve the enterprise credit management in customs clearance. Efforts will be made to strengthen the publicity and implementation of credit management policies and measures, increase the number of advanced certified enterprises, and expand the scope of pilot program for advanced certified companies to apply for guarantee exemption.

8. Keep scaling up the business of "consolidated tax collection". We will intensify the publicity and promotion of the mode, actively guide more companies to adopt the "consolidated tax collection" mode in customs declaration and tax payment, and give full play to its advantages in providing guarantee for the release of goods, reducing customs clearance time, simplifying operating procedures, and consolidated tax payment. In doing so, the time spent by companies on customs clearance can be further saved, capital can be mobilized and labor costs can be slashed.

9. Carry out the pilot program for cooperation on the innovation and development of blockchain, and scale up the policy support for customs clearance regulation. We will rely on the blockchain innovation laboratory of the General Administration of Customs to extend the cross-border blockchain to Beijing and Tianjin. Efforts will be made to include more enterprises into the blockchain pilot program. For pilot enterprises, the customs authorities will introduce a customs liaison system, refer to the inspection rate of enterprises with high credit status, reduce the frequency of enterprises to be inspected and audited, establish an error tolerance mechanism and roll out other supportive measures, in an effort to improve the trade facilitation in Beijing and Tianjin.

10. Put into practice the "three zeros" mode in border inspection. Efforts will be made to innovate border inspection management services, so that the applications of ships for port entry can be processed online, and ships can enter ports without waiting ("zero waiting"); with one-stop services in place for the handling of applications for departure, ships can leave ports without any delay ("zero delay"); remote facial recognition utilized in border inspection and smart management system for ships in port with an access control at the gangway of each ship can realize the intelligent management of ships in port, and ensure a contactless ("zero contact") and "imperceptible" inspection on personnel who embark and disembark ships. This mode can effectively reduce the time spent on the related joint inspections during the stay of ships in port, greatly improve the overall efficiency of port areas, and reduce the operating costs of shipping companies.

Ⅲ. Facilitate the business coordination between Beijing ports and Tianjin ports

11. Advance the mutual recognition and sharing of facilitation measures for advanced certified enterprises. We will actively promote the mutual recognition of facilitation measures for AEO advanced certified companies in the customs district of Beijing and Tianjin, add a special customs clearance window for AEO certified companies in the customs district of Beijing and Tianjin, and assign special personnel to solve unexpected problems and to provide precise services for AEO companies, with the aim to achieve the cross-customs district sharing of preferential treatments such as exemption from guarantees for advanced certified enterprises in both places.

12. Implement the coordinated regulation of "two-stage access" across customs districts. Starting from December 1, 2020, based on the needs of enterprises, Beijing Customs District and Tianjin Customs District have carried out business models such as conditional lift-offs and combined inspections across customs districts.

13. Build a unified platform for cross-border trade. Efforts will be made to explore the functional integration between the cargo port smart platform jointly built by Tianjin Port and Tianjin Customs District and the Beijing airport e-freight platform system, and jointly establish a Beijing-Tianjin coordinated cargo port smart platform, so as to realize the interconnection of Tianjin Port and Beijing Airport, the intercity appointments for customs clearance, the reduction of the cost of freight collection and distribution, and the improvement of port operation efficiency.

14. Carry out cross-border e-commerce cooperation at ports. We will encourage enterprises in Beijing to carry out cross-border e-commerce B2B goods exports through Tianjin Port, and support enterprises in Tianjin in carrying out cross-border e-commerce B2C exports through  airports in Beijing.

Ⅳ. Push forward the featured application of "single window" for international trade

15. Expand the functional application of the "single window". Efforts will be made to incorporate functions such as exit-entry inspection and quarantine, making appointments for inspection, boarding ships for joint inspection into the "single window", pushing forward the connection of the "single window" with transportation and logistics information nodes, so as to expand the scope of application of two-way interaction between supervision and inspection orders and port operations, and provide facilitation services for enterprises.

16. Build a "single window" with local featured functions. Based on the standard version of the "single window" for international trade, we will develop applications with local features of Beijing, with the aim to realize a convenient and paperless customs clearance of exhibits and temporarily imported goods, as well as a whole-process coordination and integration, and to improve cross-border trade facilitation.

17. Establish an intermediary service assessment mechanism in the "single window". We will expand the function of "single window" concerning the services of cross-border trade intermediaries, evaluate the services of intermediaries, and standardize and improve their services.

18. Improve the convenience of refunding taxes on exported goods. Efforts will be made to refine the function of "single window" in export tax refund, and include all the 62 items concerning export tax refund in four categories, namely, declaration, filing, certification and others, into the "single window", and promote the "single window" to achieve the coverage of export tax refund in all businesses and in the whole process.

19. Enhance the capabilities of the "single window" in providing comprehensive consulting services. New technologies such as artificial intelligence will be deployed to upgrade the function of the "single window", realize the automatic robot response to users' online inquiries, intelligent assignment of service staff and other functions, and enhance the sense of gain of foreign trade enterprises in an all-round manner.

Ⅴ. Speed up the building of smart port

20. Step up the construction of smart port. We will accelerate the application of intelligent technologies in berths, gantry cranes, quay cranes, and container trucks in Tianjin Port, press ahead with the large-scale application of unmanned container trucks in container terminals, and push forward the demonstrative application of 5G technology in high-definition video return and remote control of large-scale loading and unloading equipment, so as to make the port more and more intelligent.

21. Promote the application of the cargo port intelligent platform jointly built by Tianjin Port and Tianjin Customs District. Efforts will be made to ensure the applications of exporters and importers can be processed online or via the mobile devices, leverage the function of the platform in intelligently matching the container trucks hailed online with customers, and vigorously promote the "ship-side direct pick-up" of imported goods and "direct loading upon arrival" of exported goods.

Ⅵ. Further regulate the fees and charges at ports

22. Stop levying port construction fees. Starting at 0:00 on January 1, 2021, all goods within the jurisdiction area of ports that are open to the outside world will no longer be levied on port construction fees. The time when the levy on port construction fees is exempted for a cargo ship shall be based on the time when it arrives at or departs from the port. If the time of its arrival or departure cannot be determined, the time when the ship arrives at or leaves the berth shall prevail, and the AIS (Automatic Identification System) trajectory or VTS (Vessel Traffic Services) trajectory will be used as supplementary evidence.

23. Upgrade the "three sunshine services" of Tianjin Port to version 4.0. Efforts will be made to further streamline port service charging items, standardize fees and charges, upgrade the time limit standards for operation at the port, so as to create a high-level port featuring "sunshine services".

24. Further regulate charging behavior at the port. We will comprehensively sort out and identify relevant standards and dynamically adjust the list of charging items to ensure that the list is in line with the actual situation and no charges are imposed on the items outside the list. Efforts will be also made to standardize the charging items and the services of shipping agents and freight forwarders, promote the streamlining of charging items, and further ensure transparent charging behavior of shipping agents and freight forwarders.

25. Strengthen supervision and inspection. Sustained efforts will be made to strengthen the supervision of charging behavior at the port, and investigate and punish any illegal charging behavior such as service provision and charging against the will of importers and exporters, and unclear pricing. Besides, special focus will be placed on the investigation and punishment on the behavior of refusing to implement preferential fees reduction and exemption policies at the port and in inspection and quarantine.

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

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

             Beijing Customs District People's Republic of China  　　　　

     Tianjin Customs District People's Republic of China　　　　

   Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport　　　　

Tianjin Municipal Transportation Commission (Tianjin Municipal Port & Shipping      Administration)

                                     Beijing Municipal Bureau of Market Regulation　　　　  

Tianjin Administration for Market Regulation　　　　

Beijing Municipal Tax Service, State Taxation Administration　　　　

Tianjin Municipal Tax Service, State Taxation Administration　　　　

February 4, 2021