China to streamline Yangtze River customs clearance

The name plate of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone on a gate of the Waigaoqiao free trade zone in Shanghai. ZHAO YUN / FOR CHINA DAILY

SHANGHAI - Measures enabling speedier customs clearance in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) look set to be rolled out to other customs points along the Yangtze River.

The General Administration of Customs (GAC) announced on Monday that it is mulling how to apply this streamlining, first piloted in the new FTZ, to other customs points along the Yangtze.

The Yangtze River belt is dotted by 70 customs checkpoints with regulatory privilege to engage in export-oriented manufacturing and processing. Custom authorities hope to improve coordination among them to ensure smooth movement of cargoes and promote high-end manufacturing.

While cities like Shanghai, Nanjing and Suzhou located at the downstream of the river are China's manufacturing bases and financial hub, provinces on the Yangtze's upper reach are centers of industrial production and agriculture.

Cargoes that enter China through customs at the Shanghai FTZ - a 29-square-km area consisting of four former bond areas -- may now be stored before they are declared to customs authorities, a move that has reversed the practice at other checkpoints in China but one that has proved efficient for trade.

A number of initiatives to improve customs clearance have been proposed and are being piloted in the Shanghai zone in the hope that they may be introduced to other customs checks to unify regulation and enable faster movement of goods between Shanghai and other checkpoints.

Speedier customs clearances and an improved logistics network will also ease delivery of agriculture products and natural resources and thus benefit commodity trading.

Customs reform benefits free trade zone enterprises	Customs duties to be adjusted