The delay in customs clearance for exports to China, is global trade affected?

Bloomberg News reported on July 14 that China’s intensive testing of COVID-19 for meat, seafood and other products has increased the clearance time of some major ports to three times in the past, triggering concerns about delays in global trade flows.

A supply chain company that provides imported food customs clearance services for buyers said that under normal circumstances, customs clearance takes about 3 days, but now it takes 10 days.

After the import of salmon was suspected to be the culprit in the June epidemic in Beijing, in order to protect public health, China began to conduct virus testing on the transportation of refrigerated food.

In early March, when the epidemic was about to evolve into a global pandemic, the world’s number one commodity importer, China, had taken port control measures to prevent a shortage of port workers.

The resulting delay in unloading and the delay of the ship’s return to the port have caused a shortage of containers, which has caused goods from Thai curry to Canadian peas to stay in ports around the world.

At a press conference held on Friday, the General Administration of Customs of China stated that 227,934 samples from (imported) refrigerated foods have been tested by the National Customs for new coronavirus, and the nucleic acid of the new coronavirus was detected in 6 samples.

In addition, almost 60,000 domestic food samples were tested negative.

Lin Guofa, a senior analyst at the BRICS Agricultural Group, said that Beijing has controlled the spread of the virus, and the relevant tests will help curb the potential epidemic, but "definitely it will take longer to clear customs."

In addition, now "due to potential risks, buyers are reluctant to import, and exporters may choose not to export due to strict testing."