China has set up a mechanism to share commodity quality and safety information with 35 countries and regions during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), according to a senior official of the General Administration of Customs (GAC) in Beijing on Monday.
Speaking at a press conference, Zhao Zenglian, deputy head of the GAC, announced the establishment of a collaborative mechanism with domestic departments, including market supervision, industry and information technology, and commerce, to address defective imported and exported products. This initiative aims to enhance interdepartmental cooperation and strengthen joint governance over the quality and safety of cross-border commodities.
"Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan, customs authorities have inspected over 9 million batches of imported and exported goods, and returned over 10,000 batches of non-compliant mineral products and recycled metals. Strictly prohibiting the entry of foreign waste, customs authorities have returned over 4,000 batches of solid waste and initiated investigations into 589 criminal cases involving the smuggling of waste. We have conducted comprehensive inspections of hazardous materials at ports of entry, uncovering over 9,000 cases of false or concealed declarations and identifying over 130,000 batches of non-compliant hazardous materials, all in an effort to safeguard national border security," said Zhao.
Focusing on products closely related to public life, such as clothing, home appliances, and infant and toddler products, he said the GAC has detected 12,000 batches of non-compliant goods and 68,000 non-compliant vehicles.
He said through innovative regulatory models, the clearance time for imported mineral products and exported lithium batteries has been reduced by over 80 percent.
Smart inspections of imported bulk commodities have helped enterprises increase economic benefits by 1.8 billion yuan (about 251 million U.S. dollars) and detected 39,000 batches of underweight imported goods, helping enterprises recover nearly 10 billion yuan (about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars) in economic losses.
China sets up mechanism to share commodity quality, safety information with 35 countries, regions
