Recently, the General Administration of Customs published the Draft Amendment to the Customs Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft), soliciting public opinions. The Draft, consisting of 10 chapters and 113 articles, integrates the existing chapters “Customs Duties” and “Customs Security” into one chapter, removes the chapter “Enforcement Supervision”, and adds three new chapters as “Customs Law Enforcement Measures and Supervision”, “Customs Risk Management” and “Enterprise Management”. The main revisions may be summarizes as follows:

For those for which detailed provisions have been set forth in laws such as the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law, the Law on the Entry and Exit Animal and Plant Quarantine, the Food Safety Law and the Law on Import and Export Commodity Inspection, the Draft does not repeat them but only provides guiding provisions. As for the Draft Customs Duty Law, State Compensation Law, Law on Administrative Discipline for Public Officials and Oversight Law which already comprehensively regulate customs duties, state compensation, law enforcement supervision, etc., the relevant content in the current Customs Law is deleted, while some provisions of the original chapter “Enforcement Supervision” are retained and integrated. A separate chapter “Customs Risk Management” is added.

Embed the inspection and quarantine requirements into customs supervision processes; Incorporate the management measures taken by customs to fulfill inspection and quarantine responsibilities into the concept of “customs supervision”, and categorize administrative violations related to inspection and quarantine as “violations of customs supervision regulations”; Include the inspection, quarantine, identification, sampling, and personnel quarantine inspections carried out by on-site customs inspection departments after organizational reforms under the category of “inspection”, establishing a unified legal concept. Remove the restrictions on the customs office of the place of customs declaration. Introduce additional regulations such as “pre-declaration” for import and export goods to further enhance clearance efficiency and promote trade facilitation. Add a new chapter “Enterprise Management” to improve customs' comprehensive management mechanism for enterprises.

Clearly stipulate that customs-registered and filed enterprises must obtain relevant qualifications from the competent authorities in accordance with law. The supervision and management over enterprises by customs shall not hinder other competent authorities from performing their duties in accordance with law. The in-transit supervision of imported goods after destination inspection and release shall be implemented by “relevant competent authorities in accordance with national regulations”. Modify “special customs controlling areas” to “special areas” and make clear that customs shall implement supervision on these areas in accordance with national regulations together with relevant departments.

Integrate the relevant provisions of Chapter 7 “Enforcement Supervision” of the current Customs Law into “Customs Law Enforcement Measures and Supervision”. Introduce the obligation of the party responsible for transmitting the manifest to truthfully transmit manifest data to customs. Align with the provisions of the Civil Code regarding delegation and agency, and include guiding provisions for “delegation and agency” in the process of handling customs affairs.

Adjust the inspection and release standards for inward and outward goods in the current Customs Law from “reasonable quantities and/or for personal use” to “reasonable quantities for personal use”. This means that inward and outward goods must meet both the “for personal use” and “reasonable quantity” conditions. Make clear that “if the quantity exceeds the reasonable quantity for personal use, customs procedures shall be handled for such goods”. Add provisions for the temporary storage of inward and outward goods in customs-designated places. In response to disputes over the attribution of responsibilities in postal channels, the obliged party to declare inward and outward goods is modified from “owner” to “carrying person, sender or recipient, carrier”.

Align with provisions of civil, administrative, criminal, and other laws, applying universally applicable legal concepts and terminology. This is reflected in Article 2, Article 5, Article 14, Article 15, Article 16, Article 17, Article 73 and Article 107, etc. of the Draft.