The 29th Olympics and the 13th Paralympics are slated for 2008
in Beijing. China Customs will facilitate, to the largest extent
possible, the clearance of inward and outward passengers and
materials during the Games and in its preparation stage in
accordance with the overall arrangement made by the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State
Council while borrowing the successful experience and practices of
other Customs administrations.
I. Major Measures by the General Administration of China
Customs in Support of the 29th Olympics
A. Pushing for Customs e-governance to facilitate on-line
adminstrative examination and approval
With the E-Port system, Olympic materials can go through the
examination and approval formalities on line, which will be
simplified to raise clearance efficiency. We will roll-out “on-line
payment” to simplify the operational process for paying duties,
taxes and related fees. Our portal website will also help us go
public with our work and do our jobs on line.
B. Allocating dedicated facilities, windows or desks, and
passages
a. Dedicated Customs facilities
Every customshouse will allocate facilities for the purpose of
Olympic materials only, and send teams there or to relevant
competition venues to go about Customs procedures.
b. Dedicated windows or desks
Related operational-level Customs facilities will set up
dedicated windows or desks to take care of the processing of
declaration documents, tax exemptions and reductions and cargo
supervison formalities in relation to Olympic materials. Priority
will be given to the clearance of Olympic materials, and whenever
they arrive at ports, there will be officers for them to go through
the Customs procedures.
c. Dedicated passages
At the 5 airports (Beijing Capital International Airport,
Qingdao Liuting International Airport, Shanghai Pudong
International Airport, Shenyang Taoxian International Airport and
Guangzhou Baiyun Airport), the 3 land passes (Beijing, Shenzhen,
Guangzhou) and the 4 seaports (Shanghai ,Tianjin, Dalian and
Qingdao), Olympic passages will be set up at the operational-level
passenger-processing Customs facilities to facilitate the clearance
of IOC officials, foreign athletes, other members of the Olympic
family and their personal belongings.
C. Providing omni-directional services to accelerate the
examination and release of Olympic materials
a. 24-hour services
To ensure that import Olympic materials are cleared straightway,
especially those for competition venues and key projects, we will
provide 24-hour non-stop services for the clearance of emergency
Olympic materials. Dedicated officers will be assigned to process
Olympic materials which must go through import formalities
immediately, prioritizing them over other cargo, so that they can
be cleared in time.
b. Pre-declaration and release upon arrival
The consigners, consignees or Customs brokers of imports for the
Olympics may declare to Customs in advance with the information
they have got from the bills of lading, waybills, cargo inventories
or manifests examined and accepted by Customs. Thus, the goods will
be released upon arrival if everything matches.
c. Appointment clearance services
The consigners, consignees or Customs brokers of imports for the
Olympics may make appointments with Customs during our office
hours, asking Customs to process their goods during non-office
hours, including holidays and weekends.
d. Pre-classification and Pre-valuation
Before declaring imports for the Olympics to Customs, declarers
may apply to Customs to determine in advance the classification,
dutiable price or place of origin of the imports. Customs will
provide maximum clearance facilitation for enterprises and parties
relevant to the Olympics.
D. Courteous treatment for relevant personages
a. Olympic and government officials holding diplomatic or
courteous visas will be cleared through the “Diplomatic and
Courteous Passage” and exempt from Customs examinations.
b. For visiting heads of state, heads of government and heads of
party, exemption from Customs examinations will be granted, with
the notification from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, to
the personal belongings of their delegations and retinues, to the
planes and vehicles their delegations take, including chartered
civil aviation planes, and to the articles used on the planes and
vehicles.
E. Extending the time allowed for temporary admission and
simplifying the examination and approval procedures thereof
Olympic materials temporarily admitted may, with the approval of
regional Customs, be re-exported within one year after the first
entry. Under extraordinary circumstances, the time allowed for
temporary admission may, with the consent of Customs, be extended
again, but the materials must be re-exported before March 2009.
F. Bonded release of materials enjoying tax exemption and
reduction
For import materials to enjoy tax exemption and reduction under
the umbrella of preferential tax policies for the Olympics that
arrive at ports before the issuance of related tax exemption and
reduction lists and other specific implementation measures, with
the letter of proof by the Logistics Department of Beijing
Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
(hereinafter referred to as BOCOG) and a bond equivalent to the sum
of the tax payable by the importer or a letter of bond issued by
banks, China Customs will release them first and go about the
procedures of tax collection and exemption later according to
relevant regulations.
G. Granting BOCOG the qualification as import entity
Beijing Customs allows BOCOG to register as “temporary declarer”
and gives it a fixed long-term temporary registration code so that
BOCOG can go about the import procedures for Olympic materials
while Customs supervision is exercised.
H. Enhancing Customs protection of Olympic intellectual property
rights
We will take multi-faceted measures to intensify Olympic IPR
protection in import and export in strict accordance with
Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols. For example, we
will conduct extensive education and publicity concerning Customs
laws, regulations and policies on IPR border protection to raise
enterprises’ awareness. In respect of combating the entry and exit
of infringing goods, we will constantly step up our efforts to
fight such infringements emerging from goods, passengers’ luggage
as well as postal articles. Measures will be taken to stengthen the
monitoring over the clearance node so as to ensure that IPRs are
effectively protected at ports and the legitimate rights and
interests of rightholders are well safeguarded.
I. Disposing of smuggling and violation cases appropriately
according to law to purify the clearance environment
To ensure the economic security and social stability of the
capital, China Customs resolutely fights smuggling crimes or
violations committed under the name of the Olympics. Based on the
principle of “legal and efficient”, we will simplify relevant
penalty procedures to raise the efficiency of investigation and
disposal of cases at the operational level, thus securing smooth
clearance of Olympic materials and people.
J. Establishing emergency mechanism to ensure that the Olympics
Games go smoothly
a. Organizational guarantee
We will set up a steering board on Olympic Customs clearance as
well as a cross-department group to coordinate matters of approval,
Customs supervision, examination and release related to the entry
and exit of Olympic materials and people.
b. Fast reaction mechanism
Different departments of Customs will set up the mechanism of
hotline contact so that when emergency comes in the processing of
inward and outward passengers, mails, express consignments and
cargo, special teams will pop up immediately to implement our
emergency plans to ensure port safety by efficient disposal.
c. Enhancing security
We will make more strenuous efforts to fight such contrabands as
weapons, ammunitions and biological and chemical hazardous
materials. Vigilance will be enhanced against behaviour
constituting a threat to the national political and economic
security to prevent terrorists from smuggling contrabands
sneakingly through our passenger, cargo, mail and express
consignment checks.
II. Work Already Done in Support of the Olympic
Games
A. The General Administration of China Customs has formulated
the Notice on Clearance of Materials for Beijing Olympics, which
provides operable guidance, and decided that the notice is also
applicable to test events, torch relay and related cultural
programmes. The notice gives special provisions on the issue of
bond for temporarily admitted Olympic materials. With the detailed
lists of materials to enter China for the Olympics provided by
BOCOG and letters of bond issued by banks, China Customs will put
the materials under the procedures of temporarily admitted goods
when processing them, and their consignors and consignees needn’t
put in any bond to Customs.
B. Upon the approval of the preferential tax policies for the
29th Olympics by the State Council, the General Administration of
China Customs, together with the Ministry of Finance and the State
Taxation Administration, issued immediately the tripartite Notice
on Tax Policies for the 29th Olympics, which specified the various
tax policies for the Olympics including those preferential ones on
import tax.
C. For the implementation of the preferential tax policies
approved by the State Council, the General Administration of China
Customs has cooperated actively with other departments including
the Ministry of Finance in verifying the lists of import materials
for the construction of competition venues that should enjoy tax
exemption and reduction under the umbrella of preferential tax
policies for the Olympics. Currently we have finished the
verification of the list of import equipment for the construction
of Beijing Shooting Gallery that should enjoy tax exemption. We
will offer even greater support for the verification of lists of
other items that should enjoy tax exemption and reduction, and do
our best to finish the verification the soonest possible.
D. For import materials to enjoy tax exemption and reduction
under the umbrella of preferential tax policies for the Olympics
that arrived at ports before the issuance of related tax exemption
and reduction lists and other specific implementation measures,
with the letter of proof by BOCOG and a bond equivalent to the sum
of the tax payable by the importer or a letter of bond issued by
banks, China Customs released them first and went about the
procedures of tax collection and exemption later according to
relevant regulations.
E. We have been coordinating actively with relevant departments
of the State Council on the expansion of the applicability of tax
policies for the Olympics to the Paralympics while participating in
the research on this issue.
(Customs.gov.cn)