GACC Announcement No.20, 2014 on China-South Korea Mutual AEO Recognition

In June 2013, both China Customs and South Korea Customs jointly signed their mutual recognition arrangement concerning Chinese customs-certified enterprises and South Korean customs-certified enterprises. Recently, both parties have decided to formally implement the mutual recognition arrangement as from April 1, 2014, relevant matters as follow:

1. China Customs shall regard South Korean customs-certified enterprises of compliance as South Korean "Authorized Economic Operators" (hereinafter as AEOs), and South Korea Customs shall regard Chinese customs-certified enterprises of the AA grade as Chinese AEOs.

2. Both parties shall reciprocally grant customs-clearance conveniences as follow to the imports from the other's AEOs, including: reduction of import inspection rate; simpler verification of import documents; prior arrangement for import clearance; disposition of special communicators for coordination; and prior arrangement in emergency.

3. Chinese AEOs' direct exports to South Korea shall be covered by the clearance conveniences provided by South Korea Customs.

For the purpose of the exports, Chinese AEOs shall inform their South Korean importers of their AEO-certification codes (AEOCN + 10-digit enterprise code registered with China Customs); thereby, the South Korean importers may acquire from South Korea Customs the corresponding codes for overseas trade partners (CN + 6-digit enterprise name + 4-digit code + 1-digit security code) and then enter the information of the certified enterprises;

Upon the importers' declaration, South Korea Customs may compare between the entered enterprise information and the corresponding information provided in advance by China Customs. In the case of mutual consistency, the import clearance shall be provided with relevant conveniences.

4. South Korean AEOs' direct exports to China shall be covered by the clearance conveniences provided by China Customs.

Upon their declaration of the imports from South Korean AEOs, Chinese importers shall fill the "Remark" column of their declaration forms with the certified South Korean AEO codes in the manner of "AEO" + "<" + "KR" + "7-digit enterprise code" + ">", for example "AEO<KR1234567>";
China Customs shall compare between the entered enterprise codes and the corresponding information provided in advance by South Korea Customs. In the case of mutual consistency, the import clearance shall be provided with relevant conveniences.



The General Administration of Customs of China (GACC)

March 5, 2014