China announced on Thursday that it will begin promoting 25 tested measures nationwide to facilitate cross-border trade.
These measures achieved positive results in further unleashing policy benefits and in enhancing both quality and performance of foreign trade during tests in last year's special campaign on producing replicable and scalable institutional innovations, said officials of the General Administration of Customs and Ministry of Commerce at a press conference in Beijing. A key priority of the 25 measures is to ensure smooth and efficient cross-border logistics, particularly those on strengthening connections between different channels and modes of transport to realize each import or export container is handled by a single courier without reloading of goods, and expand multimodal transport services such as air-to-air transshipment, and air-land and air-rail intermodal transport, the officials said.
In order to support the development of new business forms and models, relevant policies regarding tax refund upon departure and post-sale accounting will be fully implemented in cross-border e-commerce, air transport of goods with electrical charges will be allowed, and cross-border mutual recognition of electronic business certifications and electronic signatures will be realized, according to the officials.
The facilitation measures also include some on the regulation of special commodities, such as simplifying import vehicle documents and streamlining related procedures, promoting the integration of the certificate of importation of goods and the inspection certificate for imported motor vehicles into a single certificate when inspecting imported vehicles, and reforming classification measures for natural items that serve dual roles as both nutritious foods and therapeutic remedies to facilitate their customs clearance.
One-stop services will be offered to foreign trade businesses, international ships that undergo inspections, as well as germplasm enterprises so that they only have to submit applications once, and all the approval process will be carried out completely online, said the officials.
Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) high-credit enterprises will receive greater support in financing, credit lines, financing guarantees, and export credit insurance; import and export fee collections will be further regulated; and maritime services will be provided for lower costs and higher efficiency of the transport of electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products, the officials added.
China promotes 25 measures nationwide to facilitate cross-border trade
