On April 23, the General Administration of Customs held a regular press briefing. Lin Jiantian, Director of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs, and Zhu Fang, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Customs, gave a comprehensive interpretation and introduction of the new AEO facilitation measures and the AEO Conference, and answered questions from reporters. On April 16, the General Administration of Customs issued the "Notice on Increasing the Facilitation Measures for Advanced Certified Enterprises to Promote the Stability of Foreign Trade Quality and Quantity", on the basis of the original management measures, a new batch of facilitation measures was launched for advanced certification enterprises (AEO enterprises), which can be summarized as 17 measures in 4 aspects: reducing the frequency of inspection and quarantine supervision, reducing the import and export costs of enterprises, improving the intelligence level of convenience measures, and improving the level of precision service enterprises. On the one hand, in order to further play the role of customs credit management, further enhance the sense of gain of AEO enterprises, create a better business environment, and better serve the quality and quantity of foreign trade, on the other hand, from May 8 to 10, the 6th Global AEO Conference hosted by the World Customs Organization (WCO) and jointly organized by the General Administration of Customs of China and Shenzhen will be held in Shenzhen, introducing facilitation measures to increase the number of Chinese AEO enterprises, further demonstrating that China Customs attaches great importance to the AEO system and attaches great importance to AEO enterprises.
AEO is an abbreviation for Authorized Economic Operator. The AEO system is the core system in the World Customs Organization's Standard Framework for the Security and Facilitation of Global Trade (hereinafter referred to as the "Standards Framework"), which aims to minimize the risk of customs supervision through cooperation between customs and customs, customs and the business community, and customs and other government departments, so as to promote the security of global supply chains and trade facilitation, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results between customs and enterprises, and smooth trade. The system is certified by the customs on the credit status, law-abiding and security level of enterprises, and the enterprises that pass the certification can obtain preferential and convenient measures given by the customs.
Since the implementation of the AEO system in 2008, China Customs has organically integrated the requirements for the construction of the national credit system with the relevant content of the World Customs Organization's Standards Framework, continuously optimized and improved the enterprise credit management system, and has comprehensively built a credit management system of "integrity and law-abiding convenience, and punishment for dishonesty and violations".
As an enterprise with the highest credit rating of the Customs, AEO enterprises can enjoy a series of preferential management measures such as priority processing, reducing the frequency of supervision, and optimizing services, effectively reducing the cost of international trade and enhancing international competitiveness. In the first quarter of 2024, AEO enterprises will give priority to 355,000 customs clearance procedures for import and export goods, implement verification and self-inspection results approval operations, and 2,024 customs declarations of "release before inspection", and the inspection rate of AEO enterprises will be reduced to 18.9% of the inspection rate of enterprises with conventional management measures. As of the end of March 2024, there are 5,860 AEO enterprises in the country, accounting for 1.19% of the number of enterprises with actual import and export performance and 36.31% of the total import and export value.
In recent years, the Customs has continuously introduced reform and innovation measures to reduce the burden and increase the efficiency of enterprises, and the overall level of import and export customs clearance has been improved. In response to the demands of AEO enterprises, the Customs has officially introduced 17 facilitation measures of "two reductions and two improvements" after investigation and evaluation, so as to promote AEO enterprises to enjoy richer benefits, more affordable measures, smarter implementation and more efficient services. After evaluation, the new facilitation measures will further help enterprises improve operational efficiency, reduce trade costs, stimulate the vitality of market players, and achieve a "rising tide" in the inclusive pattern of trade security and customs clearance facilitation of "smart customs, smart borders, and smart connectivity".
From May 8th to May 10th, the 6th Global AEO Conference will be held in Shenzhen, which is an international event in the field of AEO. Held every two years, the Global AEO Conference has been hosted by South Korea, Spain, Mexico, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates for five times since 2012, mainly to discuss matters such as promoting AEO international mutual recognition and cooperation, and promoting global trade security and facilitation. The theme of this year's conference is "Leveraging the Strengths of the AEO System to Promote Inclusive and Sustainable Global Trade". Up to now, a total of more than 400 foreign guests have completed the registration, including 253 customs from 90 WCO members, 104 from 76 overseas enterprises, 17 from 13 international organizations, 6 from 5 industry associations, 9 from 9 academic institutions, and 11 WCO staff.
Q&A
China Media Group: As mentioned in the press release, the Customs has introduced 17 facilitation measures for AEO enterprises to enhance the level of AEO concessions.
Lin Jiantian, Director-General of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs: Thank you for your question.
The General Administration of Customs has added 17 facilitation measures in 4 aspects for AEO enterprises around the "two reductions and two improvements".
(1) Reduce the frequency of inspection and quarantine supervision.
The General Administration of Customs attaches great importance to the quality and safety of food, cosmetics and hazardous chemicals. This time, on the basis of full risk assessment, on the premise of ensuring the quality and safety of relevant products and ensuring that the customs inspection and supervision responsibilities are fulfilled in place, a pilot project to reduce the frequency of inspection and quarantine supervision will be carried out for eligible AEO enterprises, the scope of benefits of inspection and quarantine supervision will be expanded, the inspection and quarantine supervision mode will be optimized, and 6 preferential measures in the field of inspection and quarantine will be added. Measures such as reducing the proportion of inspection and quarantine of exported food and cosmetics will really expand the facilitation measures to the field of inspection and quarantine, and the primary sense of gain of enterprises will be significantly enhanced;
(2) Reduce the import and export costs of enterprises.
4 new measures. The pilot project of applying for tax exemption guarantee for AEO enterprises was carried out conditionally, which effectively responded to the "application for tax exemption guarantee" that enterprises in the survey were most concerned about Extend the time limit for voluntary disclosure to less than one year to fully release the dividends of voluntary disclosure policy for AEO enterprises and guide enterprises to standardize and abide by the law; introduce credit commitments, expand the scope of application of facilitation measures, encourage supply chain enterprises to improve their credit ratings, further expand the scope of enterprises enjoying benefits, enhance the resilience of the industrial chain, and promote the quality and quantity of foreign trade with mutual trust between enterprises and enterprises.
(3) Improve the level of intelligence of facilitation measures.
Three new facilitation measures were added. By automatically identifying or marking the information of AEO enterprises in the relevant operating system, implementing intelligent prioritization, relying on the system to support AEO enterprises to give priority to customs business such as customs declaration form repair and withdrawal, port inspection and territorial inspection, etc., and giving priority to the reform of application scenarios related to smart customs, supporting AEO enterprises to improve quality with "intelligence", taking the lead in enjoying the dividends of "safety, convenience and efficiency" of smart customs, and continuously improving the sense of gain of AEO enterprises.
(4) Improve the level of precision service enterprises.
4 new facilitation measures were added. The Customs provides "one-to-one" coordination services, so that AEO enterprises can contact the corresponding coordinators in a timely manner, and the service timeliness and service quality will be significantly improved, and the Customs will actively communicate and coordinate to solve the problems reported by the enterprises in the implementation of facilitation measures in the countries (regions) with mutual recognition; give priority to providing customs extranet application services, give priority to the handling of customer service work orders of AEO enterprises and pay return visits to them, so as to improve the service experience of enterprises; include cross-border e-commerce AEO enterprises in the scope of customs and enterprise collaborative co-governance, and implement "one enterprise, one policy" Help the high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce enterprises.
Thank you!
China National Radio: What development opportunities does the customs AEO system provide for the majority of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and how can we attract more micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to join the AEO?
Zhu Fang, Deputy Director-General of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs: Thank you for your question.
The AEO system is widely recognized as a key driver for building a strong customs-business partnership, and China Customs pays special attention to the sense of participation and gain of enterprises in the development and implementation of the AEO system, and strives to enable enterprises of all sizes and types to benefit from the AEO program. The majority of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises play an important role in enhancing the resilience of the mainland economy and the stability of industrial and supply chains, and helping the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises will provide strong support for promoting the quality and stability of foreign trade.
China Customs has fully considered the actual situation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the top-level design, international mutual recognition and facilitation measures of the AEO system, which reflects the universality, inclusiveness and scientificity of the AEO system. First, the system is designed to treat micro, small and medium-sized enterprises equally. The customs optimizes the hierarchical and classified management of enterprises, formulates an AEO certification standard system including "general standard + single standard", and specially sets up individual standards for different enterprise types and business scopes, and the "personalized" system design is more in line with the actual situation of enterprises, which is easy to give full play to the advantages of fine management of small and medium-sized enterprises, and is convenient for enterprises to find the "focus point" according to their own business conditions. Second, carry out precise credit cultivation for small, medium and micro enterprises. Identify the pain points and weaknesses of small and medium-sized enterprises, such as weak customs departments and insufficient human resources, and actively guide and help enterprises improve internal management, strengthen trade security control, greatly reduce the cultivation cost of small, medium and micro enterprises, and help enterprises become AEOs. In addition, the Customs has introduced a series of facilitation measures that are urgently needed by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. For example, in terms of AEO international mutual recognition, China Customs is concerned about the weaknesses of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) as a whole, weak anti-risk ability, and unfamiliar with international rules, and focuses on seeking facilitation measures for enterprises in terms of document review rate, cargo inspection rate, and priority customs clearance after international trade interruption, so as to effectively reduce the customs clearance costs and trade risks of MSMEs; Preferential policies such as priority laboratory testing have been added to the AEO facilitation list, and continue to inject "credit momentum" into micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
Thank you!
China Daily: We have seen that the customs has continuously introduced facilitation measures in favor of AEO enterprises, what are the highlights of China's AEO practice and innovation, and what are the advantages that China's AEO enterprises can enjoy?
Lin Jiantian, Director-General of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs: Thank you for your question.
China Customs attaches great importance to AEO work and has taken a variety of measures to provide high-quality services to AEO enterprises:
The first is to provide the best service within the scope of the Customs' responsibilities. China Customs has introduced a total of 28 facilitation measures in five categories: priority processing, reducing the frequency of supervision, reducing customs clearance costs, shortening processing time, and optimizing services, and this time 17 facilitation measures have been added in 4 aspects, effectively helping AEO enterprises to "accelerate" customs clearance and reduce their foreign trade costs.
The second is to provide joint incentives with relevant government departments. The General Administration of Customs actively strengthens coordination with other government departments to promote "information exchange, mutual recognition of supervision, and mutual assistance in law enforcement" between departments, and implements joint incentives to AEO enterprises in conjunction with the National Development and Reform Commission, the People's Bank of China and other departments. At the same time, many customs and local governments have also jointly issued incentives for AEO enterprises with local characteristics, creating a new path to encourage the development of AEO enterprises.
The third is to enjoy the facilitation measures provided by AEO mutual recognition countries (regions). AEO enterprises can enjoy a number of conveniences when clearing customs in overseas mutual recognition countries (regions), such as: applying a lower document review rate and inspection rate of imported goods, giving priority to the inspection of goods that need to be inspected, designating a customs liaison officer to be responsible for communicating and dealing with the problems encountered by AEO enterprises in customs clearance, and giving priority to customs clearance after the interruption and resumption of international trade.
Thank you!
International Business Daily: It is understood that AEO enterprises can enjoy the facilitation measures of mutual recognition, how many countries (regions) have achieved mutual recognition of AEO with China, and what work has China Customs done to expand the "circle of friends" of AEO mutual recognition?
Zhu Fang, Deputy Director-General of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs: Thank you for your question.
As of the end of March 2024, China has signed AEO mutual recognition arrangements (agreements) with 26 economies, covering 52 countries (regions), ranking first in the world in terms of the number of mutual recognition arrangements (agreements) signed and the number of countries (regions) with mutual recognition.
In order to continue to expand the "circle of friends" of AEO mutual recognition, China Customs has mainly carried out the following work:
First, we will make every effort to serve the overall situation of national diplomacy. We will carry out AEO work closely around the key directions of national diplomacy, focus on the joint construction of "Belt and Road" countries, vigorously promote international mutual recognition and cooperation in AEO, and actively contribute to the achievements of heads of state diplomacy. For example, the AEO cooperation documents signed by China Customs with the customs of Uzbekistan, South Africa, Turkmenistan and other countries have been included in the China-Central Asia Summit and the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation and other diplomatic achievements.
The second is to innovate the way of international mutual recognition and cooperation of AEO. Innovatively carry out video consultations and "online + offline" certification observation to accelerate the process of AEO mutual recognition and cooperation. On the basis of continuing to expand the scope of bilateral AEO cooperation, we will explore the "one-to-many" multilateral mutual recognition model with the East African Community Secretariat to improve the efficiency of mutual recognition consultation.
The third is to take the initiative to carry out AEO capacity assistance. Relying on the AEO training base, we carry out online training on the AEO system and certification standards, and provide AEO special lectures for RCEP member countries and Central and Eastern European countries (regions), so as to realize the "active leadership" of the AEO system. Actively carry out AEO capacity assistance for Turkmenistan and other countries that have not yet established an AEO system, share China's wisdom and Chinese solutions, lay a good foundation for subsequent AEO mutual recognition cooperation with them, and expand the influence of Chinese customs.
Thank you!
China Media Group Financial Program Center: In the release, it was mentioned that the new measures include reducing the proportion of inspection and quarantine batches for export food and cosmetics, and reducing the number of on-site inspections of export hazardous chemicals and dangerous goods packaging.
Lin Jiantian, Director-General of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs: Thank you for your question.
The Customs has the responsibility to supervise and manage the safety of export food, implement hierarchical and classified management for different target markets and different product types, and use data review, on-site inspection, enterprise verification and other methods to ensure that the exported food meets the safety and health requirements of the importing country. Preferential measures will be given to AEO enterprises to reduce the proportion of inspection and quarantine sampling of export food and cosmetics, and the operation of the logistics supply chain of enterprises will be more efficient and the operating costs will be further reduced.
The relevant regulations of the customs on the number of on-site inspections of the packaging of hazardous chemicals and dangerous goods for export have realized "liberalization" on the basis of "controlling", and the requirements for enterprises to fulfill the main responsibility of production safety are higher. The measures introduced this time are not simply to reduce the number of inspections, but on the basis of full risk assessment, the export of hazardous chemicals exported by production AEO enterprises is preferentially applied to the "inspection batch" as the unit of the export declaration supervision mode, the "inspection batch" must be a physical batch, the first "declaration batch" of the same "inspection batch" to implement on-site inspection, the subsequent "declaration batch" can be directly released after reviewing the documents; When manufacturing parameters such as production materials and production processes are required to be truthfully declared to the customs, the customs will also strengthen the inspection of the use of dangerous goods packaging and identification, and strictly prevent and control risks. In this way, the triple goal of "manageable, fast, and efficient" can be achieved.
Thank you!
Economic Information Daily: We understand that with the continuous enrichment of customs AEO facilitation measures and the continuous expansion of the scope of international mutual recognition of AEO, more and more foreign trade enterprises hope to become AEOs.
Zhu Fang, Deputy Director-General of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs: Thank you for your question.
In order to support more honest and law-abiding enterprises to become AEOs, China Customs has created a corporate credit cultivation model, and in accordance with the principle of "active customs service, voluntary participation of enterprises, open participation channels, and emphasis on cultivation effectiveness", it has adopted various forms to carry out certification guidance for enterprises, including offline centralized publicity, policy interpretation, online video conference, online Q&A, etc., and integrated AEO training bases, online real-life simulation, etc., to strengthen the cultivation effect.
Credit cultivation has played an active role in helping enterprises strengthen compliance awareness, standardize internal control management, and improve the level of law-abiding, and more and more enterprises have benefited from the AEO system, and AEO has gradually become an auxiliary engine for the development of foreign trade.
Thank you!
China News Service: China Customs has been helping domestic enterprises to "go global" and strive for greater space for international development. What are the innovative working modes of the Customs in terms of "credit supervision" and "credit service"?
Lin Jiantian, Director-General of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs: Thank you for your question.
In line with the principle of "honesty and law-abiding facilitation, and punishment for untrustworthiness and violations", China Customs has actively built a new type of customs supervision mechanism based on credit, and adhered to the two-wheel drive of "credit supervision" and "credit service".
In terms of "credit supervision", the customs optimizes the allocation of regulatory resources in light of the credit status of enterprises, integrates credit elements into the whole chain of supervision "before, during, and after the event", and implements differentiated management measures for enterprise credit, so as to ensure that honest enterprises are not disturbed and untrustworthy enterprises are restricted everywhere. For example, the average inspection rate of imported and exported goods of untrustworthy enterprises has reached more than 80 percent; those engaged in processing trade business shall provide full guarantees; and the customs have increased the frequency of inspections and verifications.
In terms of "credit services", the Customs continues to innovate its work mode and optimize service mechanisms such as credit cultivation, credit restoration, and customs-enterprise coordination. For example, promote the construction of "smart credit", explore the digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of credit cultivation, develop and apply smart cultivation systems, realize intelligent learning, intelligent connectivity, and intelligent review, create a "one-stop" service model for credit cultivation, and support more high-quality enterprises to become AEOs; In terms of coordination services, the original enterprise coordinator mechanism will be upgraded to provide "one-to-one" accurate coordination services for AEO enterprises and improve service timeliness and service quality.
Thank you!
China.com: It is understood that one of the ways to cultivate credit is the AEO training base. We learned that Shenzhen Customs has built a representative AEO training base in the media open day held in the early stage, what work has been carried out and what progress has been made so far?
Zhu Fang, Deputy Director-General of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs: Thank you for your question.
On October 31, 2019, the Shenzhen Customs AEO Training Base was officially put into operation, and it was upgraded in April 2024.
The AEO training base has five main highlights: First, the site continues to be optimized and upgraded, and the new base covers an area of about 3,000 square meters, which is divided into a policy publicity and implementation area, a real-life teaching area and a large-scale teaching classroom area. The second is to enrich the training scenarios, focusing on trade security, expanding and covering all standard requirements such as internal control, law-abiding norms, and financial status, so as to achieve all-round training such as initial understanding, interaction, practical operation, assessment and result analysis. The third is to highlight international cooperation, set up international mutual recognition cooperation and aid construction studios, and build a platform for AEO international mutual recognition. The fourth is to expand the training capacity and adopt the training methods of "visit + training", "publicity + international cooperation" and "personalized + large-scale" to meet the training needs of certified personnel at all levels. Fifth, we optimized the interactive experience, using a variety of technological means such as touch screen and projection to expand the interactive way of AEO answering questions, enriching the learning experience.
Since the completion of the training base, more than 2,000 people from more than 500 enterprises have visited and trained, and received visits from the WCO Secretariat, Thai Customs, Turkmenistan Customs, etc., and achieved good results. During the 6th Global AEO Conference, the training base will be one of the visiting projects for domestic and foreign guests, showing the AEO work of China Customs in a more three-dimensional and visual way, and promoting the cooperation and exchange of AEO between Chinese and foreign customs.
In the next step, China Customs will continue to promote the "online + offline" cultivation model of "wisdom cultivation + training base", create richer training scenarios, more professional training capabilities, and a more international vision, and help foreign trade enterprises get the "golden signboard" of international trade as soon as possible.
Thank you!
China Traffic Broadcasting: What are the key directions of China Customs in the future AEO work?
Lin Jiantian, Director-General of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs: Thank you for your question.
The Customs will continue to promote AEO work in three main aspects.
The first is to continuously increase the cultivation of AEO enterprises. While continuing to do a good job in the credit cultivation of leading enterprises in the industrial chain and supply chain and large-scale foreign trade backbone enterprises, we will strengthen the cultivation of new quality productivity enterprises, "specialized, special and new" small giant enterprises, and single champion enterprises, support them to become AEO enterprises, and expand the scope of AEO enterprises.
The second is to continue to improve the gold content of AEO enterprises. Strengthen the tracking and effectiveness of existing measures for AEO enterprises, promote the intelligent implementation of facilitation measures, and maintain the comparative advantage of AEO enterprises. Deepen cross-departmental joint incentives for trustworthiness, and create a pattern of "1+N" facilitation measures between customs and other departments. Encourage all localities to implement personalized facilitation measures for AEO enterprises according to local conditions, and promote local governments to introduce more joint incentive measures, so as to realize the "same frequency resonance" of the preferential policies for enterprises in the local area, and expand the coverage of AEO enterprises to enjoy benefits.
The third is to promote high-level AEO international mutual recognition cooperation. Focusing on serving the national development strategy and the overall diplomatic situation, we will further expand the number of countries (regions) with mutual recognition of AEOs, and strive to contribute more achievements in head-of-state diplomacy. Innovate the working mechanism for mutual recognition of AEOs, and explore multilateral cooperation on mutual recognition of AEOs between China, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Macao. We will increase capacity building assistance to help more countries (regions) establish and develop AEO systems, and enhance the international influence of China Customs in the field of AEO. Realize the automatic exchange of AEO mutual recognition data with more countries and regions, actively carry out mutual recognition benefit evaluation through diversified channels, and improve the intelligent level of AEO mutual recognition.
China Customs will take the opportunity of hosting the 6th Global AEO Conference to deepen cooperation with customs offices around the world in the field of AEO, continuously expand the scope of mutual recognition and benefits of AEO enterprises, and build a broader international stage for foreign trade enterprises.
Thank you!
China Customs Media Center: At the Global AEO Conference, how will China Customs showcase its latest achievements and future plans in promoting AEO system innovation and international mutual recognition? What is the special significance of the conference hosted by China Customs? What are the benefits of the conference to AEO enterprises?
Lin Jiantian, Director-General of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs: Thank you for your question.
Let me briefly introduce the situation of the conference:
The AEO Conference will build a platform for co-construction and sharing, steadily expand institutional opening-up, promote global mutual recognition and coordination of the AEO system, and promote inclusive and sustainable global trade. Through plenary sessions and group discussions, the participants will discuss and exchange views on a number of topics such as the promotion of economic development and security by the AEO system, the opportunities and challenges faced by the mutual recognition of AEOs, and the future development direction of the AEO system.
At the meeting, the Chinese side will introduce the characteristic practices of China Customs in innovating and improving the AEO system, actively promoting the opening up of the AEO system, and continuing to promote relevant measures of trade facilitation, so as to demonstrate the achievements of the development of Chinese-style modern customs.
The conference is the largest global conference in the history of China's customs, which will further demonstrate China's achievements in reform and opening up in the new era, interpret that Chinese-style modernization is modernization that takes the path of peaceful development, and form a larger, wider and deeper pattern of opening up to the outside world.
First, it will help demonstrate the mainland's high-level opening up posture. This year's government work report proposes to "expand high-level opening-up and promote mutual benefit and win-win results". The conference will demonstrate China's firm commitment to a mutually beneficial and win-win opening-up strategy, publicize China's achievements in promoting trade facilitation, deeply participate in the construction of the global governance system, and steadily expand institutional opening-up in terms of rules, regulations, management and standards.
Second, it will help to further promote the construction of the "Belt and Road". At present, the mainland has achieved mutual recognition of AEO with 35 countries that jointly build the "Belt and Road". As the "frontrunner" of AEO international cooperation, the holding of the conference is a concrete measure for the mainland to take the initiative to increase investment in global development cooperation resources, and will deepen exchanges and cooperation with countries (regions) jointly building the "Belt and Road" and building a closer partnership network.
Third, it will help promote high-quality development. The conference will build a cooperation platform between government agencies, the business community and AEO enterprises, help build a new development pattern, demonstrate the advantages of the mainland's super-large-scale market, promote the docking of supply and demand of resources and products, and further attract foreign investment to "go in" and help enterprises "go out".
Thank you!
Please indicate the source of the reprint: "Customs Release"
Executive Producer / Tao Yong
Photo by Gao Liqiang
Review/ Hao Yiran, Bao Yinghui
Editor/ Dai Jun
Art Editor / Wei Hao