Ten Departments Jointly Promote Customs Clearance and Facilitation

Hu Wei said that in recent years, the relevant departments of port management have effectively promoted the realization of port efficiency improvement and cost reduction, and effectively improved the online coatingol.com of environmental coatings for port business in China. According to the Business Environment Report issued by the World Bank last year, China's cross-border trade score increased from 69.91 to 82.59, ranking 32, making it the most remarkable economy for improving business environment. "But the business environment is not the best, only better." Hu Wei said that on June 10 this year, the State Council convened a standing meeting to further deploy and put forward new requirements for optimizing the business environment at ports and speeding up the level of customs clearance and facilitation at the next stage. In order to implement the spirit of the standing meeting, the General Administration of Customs will work with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Health and Health Commission, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration, the Bank of China Insurance Regulatory Commission and the State Drug Administration. Departments have made in-depth policy research and detailed measures. On June 27, 10 departments jointly issued the Notice on Accelerating the Promotion of the Level of Customs Clearance and Facilitation, putting forward 10 specific measures. Journalists learned that two of the 10 measures were deployed to further reduce port charges and a timetable was given. Among them, before September 30, 2019, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Commerce guided and supervised major international liner shipping companies and international freight forwarding companies to effectively implement cost reduction measures and enhance the sense of gain of import and export enterprises; and before September 30, 2019, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration carried out special supervision of import and export fees. We shall investigate and punish illegal and illegal charges according to law, and investigate suspected monopolistic port operating service units and enterprises. Huang Guansheng, director of the State Port Administration Office, said that in order to reduce the compliance costs of import and export, the General Administration of Customs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Market Supervision jointly participated in the establishment of a clearance of port charges last year, led by the Ministry of Finance. The steering group has achieved positive results in promoting overall port fee reduction. For example, port operation service-based fees have been reduced from 15 to 11. On April 1 this year, the exchange rate standards of port charges for goods and port facilities security charges were reduced by 15% and 20%, respectively. In addition, it also actively guides related service-oriented enterprises to reduce their fees. Since March 20 this year, 62 shipping companies, such as COSCO, Maersk and others, have voluntarily announced a series of cost reductions in wharf operation fees, which are 5% to 10% lower than before.

Huang Guansheng revealed that in the next stage, the relevant departments will continue to strengthen supervision and inspection under the unified deployment of the leading group for clearing up port charges.