Announcement of Shanghai Customs on Developing Cross-border Trade E-commerce Import Business

No.13, 2014

In accordance with the Customs Law of the People’s Republic of China, matters about developing cross-border trade e-commerce import business are hereby announced as follows:
I. Enterprises which participate in cross-border trade e-commerce (hereinafter referred to as “e-commerce enterprises”), third-party payment enterprises (hereinafter referred to as “payment enterprises”), logistics enterprises and storage enterprises registered with the customs (hereinafter referred to as “storage enterprises”)in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone  (hereinafter referred to as the “Pilot Zone”) shall file enterprise electronic information for the record with the customs in advance through the Shanghai Pilot Cross-border Trade E-commerce Service Platform (hereinafter referred to as the “Service Platform”). The filing materials include:
1. domestic enterprise filing form;
       2. business license, tax registration certificate, organization code certificate of enterprise legal person;
       3. ID certificate of enterprise legal representative;
       4. bank account certificate;
       5. affiliation contract between overseas e-commerce business and domestic enterprise or relevant documents; and
       6. other submissions as may be required by the customs.
Storage enterprises launching Internet bonded import business shall also submit the certificate of registration of the customs declaration agency.
Enterprises with altered filing information shall complete the filing alteration formalities with the customs in a timely manner.
II. E-commerce enterprises shall complete goods filing formalities with the customs in advance. For conducting direct import business, formalities shall be completed with the port customs at the first-time import port, and for conducting Internet bonded import business, formalities shall be completed with the competent customs in the Pilot Zone (hereinafter referred to as the competent customs). Filing information includes designation, specification, model and serial number of commodities
E-commerce enterprises shall not deal in goods prohibited or restricted from import by the State; specific goods catalogue are subject to the List of Imports Prohibited and Restricted by the People’s Republic of China (Decree No.43 of General Administration of Customs). 
III.  After consumers participating in cross-border trade e-commerce make orders and payment for goods and payment of taxes and other relevant cost, the e-commerce enterprise, payment enterprise, logistics enterprises and storage enterprise shall submit goods trading data, fund settling data and logistic data to the service platform. 
IV. To conduct direct import business, the logistics enterprise shall transport goods into the special area it set up in the port (hereinafter referred to as the “special area”) to store up the goods or make sorting and other operations, and place the goods at a different area separated from common goods and make declaration to the customs after pasting two-dimension code tags to such goods.
V. To conduct Internet bonded import business, the storage enterprise shall make declaration for entering and leaving the Pilot Zone with the competent customs; merchandises and goods shall be transported into and out of the Pilot Zone through the checkpoint After cargo is transported into the Pilot Zone, the storage enterprise shall, through China (Shanghai) Pilot Zone Customs Supervision Information System (hereinafter referred to as the “Information System”) make addition to the electronic account book. The storage enterprise, after pasting two-dimension tags on the goods, shall complete formalities for leaving the Pilot Zone with the customs centralized supervision post and make deduction to the electronic account book through the Information System.
VI. The customs inspection shall be done in the special area or at the post under the customs concentrated supervision.
VII. The logistics enterprise, when receiving a cargo, shall inspect the inside of the cargo to ensure the documents comply with goods.
VIII. Where the e-commerce business, payment enterprise, logistics enterprise or storage enterprise has any of the following circumstances, the cross-border trade e-commerce business shall be suspended temporarily:
1. non-compliance with conditions for conducting business;
        2. occurrence of smuggling or import-export of goods infringing upon IP; or
        3. having other illegalities for which the customs deems the suspension necessary.
After compliance with conditions for conducting business once again or after rectification and passing the acceptance, whether or not to make recovery, the customs shall determine according to actual circumstances.
IX. The Shanghai Pilot Cross-border Trade E-commerce Service Platform in this Announcement means the service platform with Shanghai Orient Electronic Payment Limited Company as the undertaking unit, which provides basic services such as clearance and online tax collection. E-commerce enterprises shall be networked with Shanghai Customs Cross-border Trade E-commerce Clearance Management System through the service platform. Apart from the abovementioned requirements, storage enterprises participating in Internet bonded import business shall also be networked with the Information System. 
This announcement comes into force on the date of promulgation.

Shanghai Customs
April 21, 2014