National Business Daily:

What measures has the GACC taken to promote the development of foreign trade this year? What results have been achieved so far? Thank you.

Li Kuiwen:

Thank you for your questions. Since the beginning of this year, the GACC, guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, has conscientiously implemented the guiding principles of the Central Economic Work Conference and plans of the Report on the Work of the Government, focusing on high-level opening-up, continued optimization of port business environment, streamlining of customs clearance procedures, and support of the development of new trade forms in order to further improve customs clearance facilitation and earnestly serve the high-quality development of foreign trade. We have focused on the following tasks:

First, we have continued to optimize the business environment at ports. We concentrated on special campaigns to promote cross-border trade facilitation, and carried out a four-month special campaign in eight cities across six provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. We jointly launched 18 reform and innovation measures with relevant departments, focusing on the concerns of main market players and undertaking benchmarking against internationally advanced levels. We worked with relevant departments to study and draft measures to further deepen cross-border trade facilitation reforms and optimize business environment at ports. The measures have been submitted for examination and will be implemented upon approval in accordance with relevant procedures. We have continued to implement the action plan for cleaning up and regulating maritime port charges and guide local governments to earnestly implement the publication of port charges list. We made in-depth changes to the "single window" system in international trade, realizing connection and data sharing with the systems of 25 departments. We launched 18 types of basic service functions and provided more than 700 service items, basically covering the entire field of port law enforcement.

Second, we have further simplified customs clearance process. We closely followed high-quality development to promote the integrated reform of all customs operations; actively promoted coordinated management of the operations of various customs; strengthened the coordination and interaction of departments with frequent contact with other agencies; and improved the level of system integration. We simplified customs procedures such as filing, approval, declaration and inspection; and comprehensively promoted facilitation measures such as "two-step declaration," "advance declaration," "green channel," "exemption of on-site inspection,” and "appointment for inspection, priority inspection,” in order to improve the efficiency of customs clearance. We vigorously promoted reform works such as the supervision of conglomerates' processing trade and on the destruction, disposal and other practices related to processing trade's defective products; and continuously optimized supervision model to promote the stable development of processing trade. We set up a WeChat platform for credit management, established a "problem clearing" mechanism, and took the initiative to solve problems for import and export enterprises.

Third, we have vigorously supported the development of new trade forms. We solidly promoted the construction of cross-border e-commerce pilot projects and optimized the supervision process for the return of imported cross-border e-commerce retail goods, fully replicating and promoting the "cross-border e-commerce return center warehouse" model. We also carried out special rectification actions against inbound cross-border e-commerce smuggling to break criminal chains and thoroughly solve the problem, thus promoting the healthy development of cross-border e-commerce. At the same time, we actively promoted the healthy development of market procurement trade trials, and guided the customs in charge of these trials to strengthen their publicity, improve customs supervision process, and cooperate with the competent local authorities to start market procurement exports as early as possible. 

Fourth, we have actively facilitated the building of a high-level opening-up platform. We vigorously supported the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port and promoted the implementation of the "zero tariff" policy system. Centering on the implementation of national strategies such as the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, we actively guided the customs of pilot free trade zones to carry out integrated innovation and collaborative innovation. We promoted the innovation and upgrading of comprehensive bonded zones and supported the establishment of four new comprehensive bonded zones in Yangling in Shaanxi province, Xiangyang in Hubei province, Wanzhou in Chongqing municipality, and Haikou Airport in Hainan province. We actively supported major expos such as the China International Import Expo (CIIE), China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), and China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), and made every effort to do customs clearance, supervision, service and guarantee works for inbound and outbound exhibits.

While promoting the steady growth of foreign trade, customs did not relax its efforts in routine port epidemic prevention and control. We have persisted in preventing people and goods carrying viruses from entering the country and resolutely built a port shield against possible imported cases. Thank you.