GACC Announcement No.52, 2014 on China-Switzerland FTA Approved Exporters

Upon approval by the State Council, China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement (FTA) shall enter into force on July 1, 2014. In accordance with this FTA, the GACC shall conduct a system of approved exporters from July 1. Relevant matters are hereby announced:

1. The approved Chinese exporters under this FTA may provide Declaration of Origin by themselves for their exports of goods made in China in accordance with the FTA's Chapter Ⅲ "Rules of Origin"(see the Annex 1) instead of applying to Chinese authority for Certificate of Origin. And, upon the entry of their goods into Switzerland, they may apply for the FTA's tariff preferences to Swiss authority by submitting their Declaration of Origin.

Those approved exporters are listed in the Annex 2.

2. The registered AA-grade manufacturing enterprises may submit Letter of Commitment (see Annex 3) to local first-tier customs. The GACC may accord "Approved Exporter Registration Number" to those enterprises by the last workday of each quarter, and the recipient will become an eligible approved exporter from the first day of the next month.

3. Under any of the following circumstances, the enterprises shall be disqualified from the approved exports:

(1) Their customs classifications are degraded;

(2) Their Declarations of Origin are found untrue seriously.

4. Their Declarations of Origin shall be compliant with the following requirements:

(1) Printed on invoices or packing lists and other documents in the form specified by the FTA (see Annex 4);

(2) Containing approved exporter registration numbers and origin declaration serial numbers; a declaration serial number shall be 23 characters of numbers or letters only, comprising the following numbers:

1) Approved exporter registration number (5-digit);

2) Document issue date (8-digit: 4-digit year+2-digit month+2-digit day);

3) Document number (10-digit): with 0 preceded for a less-than-10-digit number.

Example: approved exporter registration number 11111, document number 123Abc, and document issue date 20150101, then the declaration serial number will be 111112015010100000123Abc.

(3) Valid within 12 months from the document issue date.

5. An origin-declaration data exchange system has been set up between China Customs and Swiss Customs. The approved exporters shall deliver their scanned declarations to China Customs in the following ways:

(1) A scanned copy shall be a PDF file, with definition 200ppi and size less than 500K.

(2) The filename and email name shall both be a declaration serial number.

(3) A scanned copy shall be sent to gbhgycd@customs.gov.cn before their import declaration to Swiss customs.

Annex 1: China-Switzerland FTA's Chapter Ⅲ "Rules of Origin & Implementation";

Annex 2: The List of the Approved Exporters under China-Switzerland FTA;

Annex 3: Letter of Commitment of the Approved Exporters under China-Switzerland FTA;

Annex 4: Declaration of Origin; all omitted


The General Administration of Customs of China (GACC)

June 30, 2014