Advance declaration procedures lauded by local enterprises

The gate of the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ) Comprehensive Bonded Zone. [Photo provided to en.whkfq.gov.cn]

In the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ) Comprehensive Bonded Zone (CBZ), a batch of metal products to be shipped to Canada and Mexico recently passed through customs in just six minutes. Previously, a similar process would take at least four to six hours.

For foreign traders, customs clearance time is money. The faster the customs clearance, the lower the cost.

"We try to complete import and export customs clearance procedures for each batch of cargo within 10 minutes," said a person in charge of the Comprehensive Bonded Zone and Port Logistics Park's foreign trade comprehensive service platform.

"Advance declaration" allows companies to declare goods to customs in advance, enabling the import and export process to be completed quickly after the goods arrive. In addition, when importing goods, companies do not need to fill out all declaration items at once. Instead, they can follow the "two-step declaration" model.

"Customs duties and value-added taxes for our imported equipment are high. In the past, it took up to eight hours to complete the entire process – from equipment entering the zone, reporting the imported goods customs declaration form, generating tax bills, and applying for financial taxation, to the equipment leaving the zone," said the staff member in charge of customs at CALB’s Wuhan branch.

Now the company can complete imported goods customs declaration and tax payment processes in advance, and the goods can immediately leave the zone after entering. "The whole process takes less than five minutes!" he added.