New Supervision Mode of Cross-Border E-Commerce Retail Import will Come into Operation in 15 Cities since January 1 2018

On March 17, MOFCOM Spokesman made a statement on the general supervision arrangement after the transitional period of cross-border e-commerce (hereinafter referred to as CBEC) retail import (see the complete version in Annex I). Here we summarize the key points of the statement:

1. The supervision arrangement will be implemented from January 1, 2018

2. The CBEC retail import commodities will be supervised as personal belongings temporarily.

3. Efforts will be made to further optimize and improve supervision measures and do a good job in quality safety risk control.

4. The pilot cities will be expanded from 10 to 15.

10 pilot cities at present: Hangzhou, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Fuzhou, Pingtan.
15 pilot cities according to new policy: Hangzhou, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hefei, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Dalian, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Fuzhou and Pingtan

(The words in bold are the 5 new pilot cities)

CIRS comments:

The significant change in the statement is that the CBEC products will be supervised as “Personal Belongings” temporarily, instead of “Cargo” in the current policies. However, the specific implementation rules for the new CBEC supervision are still pending.

Currently, we think that for CBEC products, the potential product safety risk and the influence to fiscal revenue are always subsistent. Since the relevant supervision regulations are in the formulation, we suggest enterprises engaged in CBEC retail to also take response measures to current regulations and consider traditional import trade at the same time. For example, you can also consider the health food registration and filing in China while sell the products through CBEC. As long as you have been well prepared, the new regulation won’t affect you a lot.

If you have any needs or questions, please contact us at service@cirs-group.com.

Annex I

MOFCOM Spokesman Comments on the General Supervision Arrangement after Transitional Period of Cross-border E-commerce Retail Import

On March 17, MOFCOM Spokesman made a statement on the general supervision arrangement after the transitional period of cross-border e-commerce retail import.

Approved by the State Council, in May 2016, China introduced the transitional period policy of relevant supervision requirement of cross-border ecommerce retail import. In November 2016, the transitional period was further prolonged to the end of 2017. In order to do the follow-up work better after the transitional period, according to the requirements of the State Council, MOFCOM, together with the State Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs, State Administration of Taxation, General Administration of Quality Supervision and State Food and Drug Administration, profoundly carried out investigations, fully listened to the suggestions of local governments, industries and enterprises and positively studied the supervision mode adapting to the development features of cross-border e-commerce retail imported commodities which have trading, personal and low-value attributes.

In order to promote the stable and sound development of cross-border e-commerce retail import, approved by the State council, the supervision mode of cross-border e-commerce retail import remains stable on the whole at the present stage, and the cross-border e-commerce retail import commodities are supervised as personal belongings. On this basis, efforts will be made to further optimize and improve supervision measures and do a good job in quality safety risk control by strengthening the entity responsibility of e-commerce enterprises. Efforts should also be made to build risk emergency response mechanism, and further adopt measures to strictly supervise the imported commodities with comparatively great quality safety risks. In the future, efforts will be made to further improve supervision mode according to requirements in combination with e-commerce legislation and the development situation of the cross-border e-commerce retail import.

In order to promote the comprehensive pilot zone of cross-border e-commerce "to try and to do," and at the same time to control risks properly, the new supervision mode will be implemented in the approved pilot cities of cross-border e-commerce retail import and the comprehensive pilot zones of cross-border e-commerce, including 15 cities such as Hangzhou, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hefei, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Dalian, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Fuzhou and Pingtan.

The above supervision arrangement will be implemented from January 1 2018, before which the transitional period policy of the supervision of cross-border e-commerce retail import will continue to be executed. Next, the relevant departments will study and introduce specific implementation rules according to the functional division and continuously promote the sound development cross-border e-commerce retail import.

Reference: http://www.mofcom.gov.cn/article/ae/ag/201703/20170302536140.shtml

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