Guangdong sub-administration of the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China (GACC) recently issued eight measures to boost foreign trade, such as expanding import and export to facilitate cross-border trade, and promote the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, etc.

"Next, the customs will implement the above measures to stabilize foreign trade and further opening up in the province," said an official of Guangdong sub-administration of GACC. From January to April, Guangdong's import and export volume reached 1.92 trillion yuan.

(Photo by Nanfang Daily)

Support cities including Dongguan to have cross-border e-commerce B2B export pilot

Developing the new model for foreign trade is essential for the province to achieve high quality development (in foreign trade). Hence, the measures propose several tasks such as to establish new cross-border e-commerce pilot areas, supporting Dongguan and other cities to launch B2B export pilots for cross-border e-commerce, and supporting the development of overseas warehouses.

As for Dongguan, the city saw a foreign trade volume of 1.38 trillion yuan in 2019, accounting for 4.3% of the country and 19.3% of the province. Its cross-border e-commerce volume was 41.92 billion yuan, accounting for 22.5% of the country and 37.8% of the province, ranking the first in the country for two consecutive years.

If Dongguan launches B2B export pilots for cross-border e-commerce, it will promote the integration of B2B export with local manufacturing industries. What's more, a B2B export pilot can further simplify the customs clearance process and improve customs clearance efficiency (for B2B products).

Promote trade facilitation for enterprises

Customs has taken measures to reduce the import and export customs clearance costs and processes for enterprises. For instance, Shenzhen customs has changed the way of inspecting goods and now implements a reform called "Internet + online auditing", that benefits manufacturing and logistics enterprises.

As of April, the number of enterprises participating in the reform in the customs area has increased to 52, and the inspection time has been shortened by more than 80% on average, with the cost saving more than 50 million yuan in total.

Due to the pandemic, the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Zhuhai has been closed for four months. "Customs helped us to make use of customs guarantee insurance and tax collection, which greatly eased the company's financial pressure", said Xie Shiming, a senior customs manager of the company.

Gongbei Customs previously applied for delayed payment of taxes for a batch of imported playground equipment of the company, involving about 4.29 million yuan of tax.

The measures also support the import of scientific instruments to enter the nine cities in the Greater Bay Area.

For instance, imported scientific research equipment and teaching supplies that meet the requirements of the import tax policy will be exempted from import tariffs, value-added tax and consumption tax.