General Administration of Customs published General Administration of Customs: Announcement of Making Clear that Taxable Export Goods of Foreign Funded Enterprises shall Pay Duties on November 16, stressing that taxable export goods of foreign funded enterprises shall pay export duties pursuant to laws.

I. Foreign funded enterprises and domestically funded enterprises stand on the same start line
Since China’s entry into WTO in 2001, following WTO fair trade and national treatment principle, China gradually cancels some super national treatment to foreign funded enterprises with regard to tax. The tax collection scope of export goods is expanded this year, and General Administration of Customs publishes announcement again, reiterating this rule.

II. Taxable exports goods are mostly product of "high consumption, heavy pollution and resource-related"
With global economic integration development, international division of labor is gradually shifted to our country, and our country becomes the global manufacturing center of some important industrial products. The giant manufacturing industry brings to our country not only tremendous economic development, but also some problems such as environmental pollution, resource wasting and trade surplus.

Thus, the government frequently adjusts export tariff policies and relevant tax policies in recent years, mainly to optimize domestic industrial structure, restrain the export of products of "high energy consumption, heavy pollution and resource-related", and decrease trade surplus. In November 2006 and in the January and June of 2007, export duties are raised or levied to products of "high consumption, heavy pollution and resource-related" and products easy to cause trade friction in international trade. Besides, following WTO-entry commitments, our country also levies export duties to some goods of other items.

The export goods of foreign funded enterprises shall pay duties, thus they face the influence of export cost increase. The customs office reminds that foreign funded enterprises follow macroeconomic adjustment direction of the government to act positively and optimize industrial structure.

III. Hints for conducting customs export formalities
As the proverb goes, time is money. For export enterprises, swift customs clearance efficiency is the wand for winning business opportunities and saving cost. In case the foreign funded enterprise exports taxable goods, it shall understand export customs clearing and duty-payment procedure ahead of time, try to reduce unnecessary economic loss, ensure smooth customs clearance of the goods and timely goods delivery. The customs office has strict time limit for customs clearance and duty collection for export goods. Firstly, the export goods shall be declared to the customs 24 hours before goods loading after shipped to the customs loading area, secondly, the enterprise shall pay duties within 15 days upon receiving tax paying notice from the customs office. In case the declaration or tax payment delays, the customs office will levy demurrage fee.

Thus, the customs office gives the following 3 hints to foreign funded enterprises:

I: Declare the goods accurately in accordance with the facts. The enterprise shall declare export goods name, tax classification number, model, price freight and insurance premium and other related fees, place of origin, quantity, etc accurately according to the facts.

II: Pre-classification of goods and fee and duty guarantee enable the enterprise a short cut. In order to make customs clearance smooth, the enterprise can apply to the customs for pre-classification of the export goods 45 days before the actual export of the goods, and conduct customs clearance formalities when the goods are exported through the customs border against <Pre-classification Notice> issued by the customs office. In case the enterprise is eager to clear customs but the classification or evaluation of goods is not confirmed or it fails to present effective customs clearance document, it can offer a security, or a letter of guarantee from a financial institution or online payment guarantee to conduct customs clearance formalities ahead of time.

III. Conducting tax rebate if necessary. At present, most export goods of our country are in bulk. In case the goods are in short upon export and surplus tax is paid, the enterprise can conduct tax rebate against certificate of inspection issued by qualified commodity inspection agency.
Furthermore, in case laws or decrees specify that export duties are exempted; foreign funded enterprise is also entitled to such preferential policies.