The Supervision and control System of the Common Import & Export Goods

(Ⅰ) The Meaning of Common Import and Export

The common import and export refers to the Customs clearance system in which the goods can be used and sold within the territory through direct import or put into free circulation by transporting out of the territory after the import and export duty has been fully paid in the entry and exit part and all Customs formalities has been gone through.

Basically, this Customs clearance system is in conformity with the two attached compacts of "Customs clearance for domestic sales"and "direct export"in the Kyoto Convention of the World Customs Organization (WCO). It prescribes that the import & export goods can stay within or beyond the territory forever. At the same time, this system contains two important meanings of totally paying the due import and export duty and going through all the formalities in the entry and exit part.

The concept "common import and export"is not the same as that of "common trade", one of the indicators of the trade means in Customs statistics. The former is a Customs clearance system while the latter is a specific transaction means in foreign trade. For those goods in the form of "common trade"transaction, one can go through the Customs formalities in the form of "common import and export"Customs clearance in the import and export part; or in the form of "bonded import and export"Customs clearance for the reason of processing exported products after purchase, e.g. process of imported materials; it is more likely that it must go through the Customs formalities in the form of "import for specially duty-exempted products"Customs clearance system without paying customs duty for the reason of using in the special regions, enterprises or special use. While the "common import and export"Customs clearance system is not only applicable for the import & export goods in the form of above-mentioned "common trade", but for all kinds of goods of different means of import and export and relating to the "Customs clearance and domestic sales"and "direct export".

The word "common"is a habitual expression used in Customs business, the word itself contains no special meanings and is used as a sign of a Customs clearance system to be separated easily from other Customs clearance systems.

Source: Shanghai Customs, PRC