GACC Announcement No.38, 2014 on Inland-Hong Kong Customs Mutual AEO Recognition

[2014-05-20 17:00:22]

In October 2013, both China Customs and Hong Kong SAR Customs jointly signed their mutual recognition arrangement concerning inland customs-certified enterprises and Hong Kong customs-certified enterprises.

Recently, both parties have decided to formally implement their mutual recognition arrangement as from May 18, 2014. Hereby announced are relevant matters on the arrangement for the first batch of land border ports:

1. The inland customs shall regard Hong Kong customs-certified enterprises in compliance as Hong Kong 'Authorized Economic Operators" (hereinafter as AEOs), and Hong Kong customs shall regard inland customs-certified enterprises of AA grade as inland AEOs.

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

3. The land-based AEO arrangement involves four land border ports: Huanggang, Man Kam To (Wenjindu), Sha Tau Kok, and Shenzhen Bay.

4. As regards the exports to Hong Kong, inland AEOs shall inform Hong Kong importers of their AEO-certification codes (AEOCN + 10-digit enterprise code registered with China Customs), firm name and address (in full consistency with inland customs registration); the Hong Kong importers may electronically declare the inland AEO information to Hong Kong Customs Land-way Goods Data System; and Hong Kong customs may use the System to compare the declared AEO information with those provided by inland customs, and if mutual consistency is confirmed, the import clearance shall automatically be processed with Hong Kong conveniences.

5. Hong Kong AEOs' direct exports to the inland shall be covered by the clearance conveniences provided by inland customs.
Upon their declaration of the imports from Hong Kong AEOs, inland importers shall fill the 'Remark" column of their declaration forms with Hong Kong AEO codes in the manner of 'AEO" + '<" + 'HK" + '10-digit enterprise code" + '>", for example 'AEO<HK1234567890>";
Inland customs may compare between the declared AEO codes and the corresponding information provided in advance by Hong Kong Customs; in the case of mutual consistency, the import clearance shall be processed with relevant conveniences.



The General Administration of Customs of China (GACC)

March 14, 2014
Source: ETCN
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