General Administration of Customs: gather strength "six stabilizes" "six guarantees" to stabilize foreign trade basic dish

On July 14, the State Council Information Office held a press conference. Li Kuiwen, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs and director of the Department of Statistical Analysis, introduced the import and export situation in the first half of 2020.

Li said at the meeting that the customs resolutely implemented the plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to promote coVID-19 epidemic prevention and control as well as economic and social development, focused on "six stability" and "six guarantees", and coordinated epidemic prevention and control at ports and promoted the steady growth of foreign trade. Since the beginning of this year, the General Administration of Customs has introduced a package of policies and measures, including 10 measures to stabilize foreign trade growth and 50 specific task lists, to support enterprises to resume work and production, ensure the smooth operation of the foreign trade industrial chain and supply chain, and stabilize the basic trade.

First, we will further improve customs clearance efficiency and continue to improve the business environment. We will deepen the reform to strengthen customs control and services, simplify customs clearance procedures, improve operational procedures, and comprehensively promote facilitation measures such as two-step declaration, green passage and exemption from on-site inspection to improve customs clearance efficiency. In June, the overall clearance time for imports and exports was 39.7 hours and 2.3 hours respectively, 59.3 percent and 81.5 percent less than in 2017.

Second, we should actively support the expansion of imports and actively respond to restrictive foreign measures to promote exports. We continued to expand the scope of imported countries and commodities, approved 5,965 more foreign-registered enterprises, and strengthened the guarantee for the import of agricultural products and food. In the first half of the year, meat (including chop suey) and grain imported 109.5 billion yuan and 154.22 billion yuan respectively, up 107.3 percent and 18.1 percent year on year. We will intensify foreign consultation and negotiation, actively respond to restrictive foreign trade measures, optimize pre-export supervision, and expand China's export of products.

Third, we will vigorously support the development of pilot free trade zones, free trade ports, comprehensive bonded zones and other platforms for opening up, and help build new heights of opening-up. We will give full support to the construction of a free trade port in Hainan, benchmark its international standards, and establish a customs supervision system in line with international standards. We will step up efforts to innovate, copy and promote the customs supervision system of the pilot free trade Zone, actively support the construction of a new area near the Port of the Pilot Free trade Zone in Shanghai, and push for the completion of the Yangshan Special comprehensive bonded zone. We will set up a number of comprehensive bonded zones in eligible central and western regions and in the eastern regions with good development momentum, fully implement global maintenance and remanufacturing, and improve the pilot program for qualifying general taxpayers. In the first half of this year, imports and exports from comprehensive bonded areas reached 1.42 trillion yuan, up 13.2% and 16.4% higher than the overall growth rate of foreign trade.

Fourth, we will promote the development of new forms of foreign trade and foster new growth drivers for foreign trade. We will comprehensively promote regulatory measures for the return of goods exported by cross-border e-commerce, and carry out trials for cross-border B2B exports. We will solve the problem of "difficult to return" goods exported by cross-border e-commerce companies, and fully support cross-border e-commerce exporters in selling goods around the world. We will encourage the central and western regions and northeast China to carry out trials of market trade and procurement. In the first half of this year, China's cross-border e-commerce and market procurement exports grew by 28.7 percent and 33.4 percent respectively, becoming an important force in stabilizing foreign trade.

Fifth, we will provide relief to foreign trade enterprises and support their resumption of work and production. A total of 137 million yuan was waived or exempted from delayed declaration for imported goods that failed to make customs declaration in time due to the epidemic. Efforts will be made to support the transfer of exports to domestic sales. Interest on deferred taxes on domestic sales of processing trade goods will be temporarily exempted, and the time limit for filing and paying tax on domestic sales of processing trade will be further relaxed. We comprehensively advanced the reform of tariff guarantee insurance, serving 3,113 enterprises and collecting 258.4 billion yuan in guaranteed taxes. Among them, small and medium-sized enterprises account for about 70%, effectively reducing burden and increasing efficiency for small, medium-sized and micro enterprises.