GACC Announcement No.56, 2014 on Cross-Border E-Commerce Trade Supervision

[2014-08-05 17:44:48]

This Announcement hereby provides regulations on the customs supervision over the inbound and outbound goods involved in cross-border e-commerce trade:

1. Supervision Requirements

(1) Customs supervision herein shall be applicable to enterprise or personal cross-border trade of goods through an e-commerce transaction platform that is recognized by and networked with China Customs.

(2) As regards customs declaration formalities, the e-commerce enterprises shall submit a Declaration List of Inbound & Outbound Cargoes in Cross-Border E-Commerce Trade (hereinafter as "Cargo List" as Annex 1); the individual persons concerned shall submit a Declaration List of Inbound & Outbound Articles in Cross-Border E-Commerce Trade (hereinafter as "Article List" as Annex 2); the Cargo List, Article List and Import/Export Declaration Form shall be equal in legal effect.

(3) The operators in warehousing the e-commerce inbound/outbound goods within a customs supervision zone shall be registered with in advance and supervised by China Customs for the cross-border e-commerce trade, and otherwise shall not undertake such e-commerce trade.

(4) The e-commerce enterprises or persons, payment enterprises, logistic enterprises and customs-supervision zone operators shall real-timely transmit their transaction, payment, logistic and warehousing data to customs management platform through an e-commerce clearance platform.

2. Enterprise Registration

(5) The e-commerce enterprises shall be registered with the customs as per China Customs regulations on declarer companies.

(6) The customs-supervision zone operators involved shall keep an electronic warehousing management system connected with customs supervision network; e-commerce transaction platform shall be connected with customs supervision network.

(7) The e-commerce enterprises shall register their inbound/outbound goods or articles with the customs in advance, providing 10-digit HS Codes of the goods and 8-digit HS Codes of the articles.

3. Customs Clearance of the Goods and Articles

(8) The e-commerce enterprises or persons, payment enterprises and logistic enterprises shall, before their customs declarations, submit the information of their orders, payments and logistics.

(9) The e-commerce enterprises shall fill in their Cargo Lists for customs clearance respectively within 14 days upon the entry of their imports and 24 hours before the shipment of their exports as per their order, payment and logistic information. The individual persons shall fill in their Article Lists for customs clearance.

(10) An e-commerce enterprise shall summarize their Cargo Lists into an Import/Export Declaration Form before the 10th day each month (to be extended in the case of holidays) as per the same business entity, the same means of transport, the same source/destination, the same port, the same 10-digit HS Codes, the same measurement unit, and the same currency.

(11) The e-commerce enterprises shall undertake taxation/exemption formalities as per general import/export regulations and submit relevant licenses during the Cargo List declarations; the individual persons shall undertake taxation/exemption formalities as per postal import/export regulations.

(12) The e-commerce enterprises or persons to revise or revoke their Cargo Lists or Article Lists shall resort to customs regulations on revision or revocation of declarations.

(13) The "import/export date" on the declaration forms shall be subject to the date when the customs accept the declarations.

(14) After the release of the goods, the e-commerce enterprises shall receive customs follow-up inspection.

4. Logistic Supervision

(15) The inspection and release shall be undertaken within customs-supervision zones.

(16) The customs-supervision zone operators shall transmit the detail information of inbound/outbound goods of previous month to the customs before the 10th day each month (to be extended in the case of holidays).

(17) The customs shall conduct inspection of the inbound/outbound goods in e-commerce trade. And the e-commerce enterprises, persons, supervision-zone operators shall provide convenience and cooperation with the customs inspection.

(18) Where the e-commerce inbound/outbound goods need to be transferred to other customs supervision zones, the formalities shall resort to China Customs regulations on transfer between customs.

5. Other Matters

(19) China Customs may conduct e-commerce statistics as per Import/Export Declaration Forms and Article Lists.

(20) Relevant Terms Meaning:

The "e-commerce enterprise" refers to an internal enterprise undertaking cross-border e-commerce trade through an e-commerce transaction platform and a provider of the e-commerce transaction platform.
The "persons" refer to internal residents.

The "e-commerce transaction platform" refers to a platform recognized by and networked with the customs for the dealing, payment and distribution of inbound/outbound goods in cross-border e-commerce trade.

The "e-commerce clearance platform" refers to a platform set up by China E-Port for data exchange and information sharing among enterprises, customs and relevant authorities.

The "e-commerce management platform" refers to an electronic platform set up by China Customs for supervision over the transaction, warehousing, logistics and clearance of the cross-border e-commerce trade.

(21) Unless otherwise regulated, the supervision within special customs-supervision zones and bonded goods supervision places may refer to these regulations herein.

This Announcement shall come into force on August 1, 2014.

Annex 1. China Customs Declaration List of Inbound & Outbound Cargoes in Cross-Border E-Commerce Trade (Cargo List) (omitted);

Annex 2. China Customs Declaration List of Inbound & Outbound Articles in Cross-Border E-Commerce Trade (Article List) (omitted)



The General Administration of Customs of China (GACC)

July 23, 2014
Source: China Customs