The Chinese government will carry on reforms in the country’s pilot free trade zones, said Li Guo, deputy director-general of the General Administration of Customs, at a press conference last week.

A series of customs supervision innovations have been introduced in Shanghai Free Trade Zone and other pilot zones. Shanghai FTZ also implemented some 50 of the 60-plus trade facilitation agreements.

An AmCham Shanghai survey found that 52 percent of the polled companies believe customs innovations in Shanghai FTZ will benefit them with higher efficiency and lower clearance costs, Li said.

About 88 percent of the companies welcomed the declaration-after-entry procedure as Shanghai Customs adopted new measures to encourage honesty and simplify clearance.

Li said his administration introduced the bonded supervision system to support new businesses, such as bonded repair services, bonded exhibition and trade, cross-border e-commerce, bonded future delivery, bonded financial leasing, and bonded cultural trade.

He said bonded imports totaled 22.95 billion yuan (US$3.32 billion) in China’s free trade zones last year. They came in 145 million consignments.

Source: Shanghai FTZ Government.cn