General

When customers complain that customs clearance tariffs are high and profits are too thin, quickly check whether they have signed a free trade agreement with my country and whether there is a "Certificate of Origin", these can be reduced or exempted from tariffs!

"Certificate of Origin (Certificate of Origin) is a certification document issued by a specific organization in the exporting country to certify that the exported goods are the country (or region) origin. A valid certificate for claims settlement, customs clearance and acceptance of importing countries, and tariff collection. It is also a certificate for exporting countries to enjoy quota treatment and importing countries to implement different trade policies for different exporting countries.

The certificates of origin issued by China for export goods are mainly divided into three categories:

①Non-preferential certificate of origin

②Preferential certificate of origin

③Special certificate of origin

The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and its local branches can issue non-preferential certificates of origin and preferential certificates of origin in accordance with the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Origin of Imported and Exported Goods". If it is clearly required that the certificate of origin be issued by the Chamber of Commerce, the enterprise should apply to the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and its local branches.

The following mainly talks about the preferential certificate of origin.

The preferential certificate of origin includes the generalized system of preferences (FORM A certificate) granted by most developed countries to my country, and China has signed bilateral or multilateral preferential trade agreements with some countries or regions.

How do you know how much money can be saved for the customer?

The reduction and exemption of tariffs are different for different products in different countries. The way to inquire about the specific agreed tax rate is:

Log in to the China Free Trade Zone Service Network (http://fta.mofcom.gov.cn/)

Find this query box at the bottom of the homepage, and enter specific information to query.

1FORM A

The certificate of origin issued in accordance with the rules of origin of the GSP preferential country and related requirements is the FORM A certificate. The FORM A certificate is when the goods of the beneficiary countries (mainly developing countries) are exported to the beneficiary countries (mainly developed countries). Certificate of origin that enjoys the preferential treatment of GSP tariffs. The goods listed on the FORM A certificate are eligible for tariff reduction and exemption only if they comply with the rules of origin of the GSP of the corresponding preferential country.

There are 39 countries that grant China's Generalized System of Preferences:

United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Malta, Bulgaria, Romania, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Turkey.

2FORM B

Countries: India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Laos and South Korea (members of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement)

"Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement" certificate of origin. The tax cuts range from 5% to 100%.

3FORM E

Countries: China, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (ASEAN member countries)

Certificate of Origin of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.

The country to be mentioned here is Indonesia.

With the continuous progress of the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, my country’s exports to Indonesia have increased significantly. In order to protect its own products, Indonesia has adopted the means of “return of certificates” and deliberately set up non-tariff barriers, especially for the country’s domestic products. Products with greater impact in the industry. In 2016, Indonesia's refunds accounted for 92.1% of all refunds.

The Indonesian Customs takes measures such as postponing the preferential treatment of tariffs, withholding the goods in advance, collecting deposits or levying taxes on the goods for which the return of the certificate is inquired, and then refunds or other treatments based on the results of the investigation. Approximately half of the certificates inquired by the Indonesian Customs can return the deposit and enjoy tariff preferences. The rest will be subject to customs duties as usual, and the deposit cannot be refunded. Some have even been fined several times the tariff. In order to avoid losses, some companies have to choose to give up tariff preferences in the free trade zone.

Therefore, when doing the Indonesian FORM E, you must pay attention to the following to ensure that the Indonesian customs is "unavailable":

Cargo description

The product name must be detailed, not general or vague. In the declaration, the items on the packing list and invoices provided to foreign customers for customs clearance must be listed one by one, and the manufacturer's name should be entered in the goods description column at the same time.

"Machine", "garment", "goods", and "clothing" are all general expressions.

Transportation route

According to the relevant provisions of Article 8 of the China-ASEAN Rules of Origin, if the goods pass through a third place other than China or ASEAN member states, a "Certificate of Non-reprocessing" shall be provided to prove that the goods have not been reprocessed or sold during transit. For reasons such as shipping routes and shipping agencies, some goods stopped in Hong Kong for transshipment, and many export companies did not apply for the "Non-reprocessed Certificate" in time, resulting in a backlog of goods in Indonesian ports, which resulted in inquiries about the Indonesian side's return of certificates. When booking the space, the enterprise directly explains to the shipping company that it only orders direct ships to Indonesia without transit. According to the shipping company, the booking fee is about 10% higher than that of the transshipment, but this can ensure the implementation of the preferential tariff of the certificate of origin.

Origin standard

The origin of the goods should be declared truthfully, and all products in a batch of goods must meet the origin standards. If a batch of goods contains similar products or spare parts of different specifications, each product must comply with the country of origin standard.

Invoice Information

The invoice information must be accurate, especially check the invoice number and date. Do not blindly follow the customer's requirements in the invoice amount and other fields, and do not blindly follow the customer to lower the invoice amount. Intermediary trade involving a third country must be filled in truthfully, and third-party invoices must be used for customs clearance. First, fill in the third-party invoice number and date as required, and note the name and detailed address of the third-party company outside of Mainland China in the seventh column. Need to check the "Third Party Invoicing" option.

Mark declaration

The information of the mark should be exactly the same as the mark on the outer packaging of the actual goods. The words made in regions or countries other than China, and the words of origin of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan must not appear. If there is no mark, enter "N/M". There is a special pattern on the mark, which needs to be printed on A4 paper, and the certificate number, declaration and visa date should be marked in the corresponding position, and the company seal should be affixed as an attachment.

Documents of certificate of origin

The original of the FORM E certificate shall be submitted to the customs of the importing country, and the third copy shall be archived and the relevant information shall be kept for at least 3 years. If there is any enquiry about the return of the certificate, the visa agency shall actively cooperate with the investigation.

4FORM P

Country: Pakistan

FORM P is issued in accordance with the "China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement Early Harvest Program Agreement" and its "China-Pakistan Free Trade Area Rules of Origin" under the "China-Pakistan Free Trade Area Rules of Origin" to enjoy reciprocal tariff reduction and exemption treatment for specific products between China and Pakistan Official certificate of origin.

The China-Pakistan Free Trade Area was established in 2006 and is the third free trade agreement signed by China after the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Goods Trade Agreement and the China-Chile Free Trade Agreement. According to the agreement, China and Pakistan will implement tax reductions on all goods and products in two stages:

In the first stage, within 5 years after the agreement comes into effect, the two parties will implement tax reductions in accordance with different tax reduction rates for 85% of their respective tax items. Among them, 36% of the product tariffs will be reduced to zero within 3 years. China’s tax reduction products mainly include livestock products, aquatic products, vegetables, mineral products, textiles, etc., while Pakistan’s tax reduction products mainly include beef and mutton, chemical products, and mechanical and electrical products.

In the second phase, starting from the sixth year of the agreement’s entry into force, the two parties will further implement tax reductions on their respective products on the basis of reviewing the previous situation. On the basis of taking care of the respective concerns of both parties, the respective zero-tariff products will be accounted for in the total tax number and The proportion of trade volume reached 90%.

It should be noted here that according to the announcement issued by the General Administration of Customs on April 16 (No. 29, 2018), from April 30, 2018 (including the same day, the same below), the "China-Pakistan Origin Electronic Information Exchange System "Formally put into operation, real-time transmission of electronic data of origin under the "Agreement." The announcement mentioned:

announcement

"3. In order to avoid difficulties in the import and customs clearance of the export goods in Pakistan, the consignor of the export goods or its agent (hereinafter referred to as the exporter) shall fill in the "Customs Exports of the People’s Republic of China Goods Declaration Form” or “Recording List of Outbound Goods by the Customs of the People’s Republic of China” (hereinafter collectively referred to as export declaration form).

4. Due to special circumstances, the customs could not receive the electronic data of the certificate of origin exported by the issuing authority, which caused the client to prompt that the electronic information of the certificate of origin does not exist when the enterprise’s export declaration was pre-entered in the customs declaration form, or the exporter did not comply with Article 51 when the goods were exported. If the Announcement No. requires the information on the origin of the goods to be filled in, the exporter shall, after obtaining the information on the origin of the exported goods, apply to the customs in a timely manner to go through the customs declaration amendment procedures to supplement the origin information.

5. If the export declaration form needs to be modified due to changes in the certificate of origin information after the export of the goods, the exporter should apply to the customs to go through the declaration form modification procedures to supplement the origin information. "

5FORM F

Country: Chile

It is an official certificate of origin issued in accordance with the "China-Chile Free Trade Agreement" and its "China-Chile Free Trade Area Rules of Origin" for specific products to enjoy reciprocal tariff reduction and exemption treatment between China and Chile.

The China-Chile Free Trade Agreement was signed in November 2005 and was implemented in October 2006. It mainly covers trade in goods and economic and technical cooperation. It is the first free trade agreement signed between my country and a Latin American country. Signed one of the free trade agreements with the highest level of liberalization of trade in goods. On November 11, 2017, the China-Chile Free Trade Area Upgrade Negotiation Document-"The Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Chile Regarding Amendments to the <Free Trade Agreement><Free Trade Agreement Supplementary Agreement on Trade in Services> ; The Protocol was officially signed.

Under the existing China-Chile Free Trade Agreement, more than 97% of the products of the two sides have achieved zero tariffs, and the level of liberalization of trade in goods is high. In the upgrade negotiations last year, the two sides continued to expand market opening on the basis of the high-level liberalization of goods under the original free trade agreement. The two parties promised to further implement zero-tariff on 54 products, and the overall proportion of zero-tariff products will reach about 98%. The China-Chile Free Trade Agreement will therefore become the free trade agreement with the highest level of open goods in my country so far. Among them, China will gradually abolish 30 wood product tariffs on Chile within 3 years after the "Protocol" enters into force, which involves Chile’s annual export to China of approximately US$400,000; Chile immediately cancels textiles, clothing, home appliances, and cane sugar to China after the "Protocol" takes effect The tariffs on 24 other products involve about 4 million U.S. dollars in exports to Chile each year.

6FORM N

Country: New Zealand

According to the "China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement" and "China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement on the Administration of the Origin of Imported and Exported Goods", the official certificate of origin for specific products enjoying reciprocal tariff reduction and exemption treatment between China and New Zealand.

7FORM X

Country: Singapore

According to the "China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement" and "China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement on the Origin of Imported and Exported Goods Management Measures", the official certificate of origin for specific products to enjoy reciprocal tariff reduction and exemption treatment between China and Singapore.

8FORM S

Country: Switzerland

According to the "China-Swiss Federal Free Trade Agreement" and its related regulations, the official certificate of origin that is issued between China and Switzerland to enjoy reciprocal tariff reduction and exemption for certain products.

9 China-Peru FTA certificate of origin

Country: Peru

According to the "China-Peru Free Trade Agreement" and the "Rules of Origin of China-Peru Free Trade Area" issued under the "China-Peru Free Trade Area Rules of Origin", the official certificate of origin for specific products enjoying reciprocal tariff reduction and exemption treatment between China and Peru.

10FORM L

Country: Costa Rica

According to the "China-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement" and the "China-Costa Rica Free Trade Area Rules of Origin" issued under the "China-Costa Rica Free Trade Area Rules of Origin", the official certificate of origin for the reciprocal tariff reduction and exemption of certain products between China and Costa Rica.

11FORM K

Country: South Korea

The FORM K certificate is issued in accordance with the "China-Korea Free Trade Agreement" and its "China-Korea Free Trade Agreement Rules of Origin and Origin Implementation Procedures" to enjoy reciprocal tariff reduction and exemption treatment for specific products between China and South Korea Official certificate of origin. South Korea can issue both the FROM K certificate for the China-South Korea Free Trade Area and the FORM B certificate of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement.

12 China-Australia FTA Certificate of Origin

Country: Australia

The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement came into effect on December 20, 2015. According to preliminary estimates, after the signing and implementation of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, China’s exports to Australia will receive a total of approximately US$1.66 billion in tariff reductions. The agreement will take effect within 3 years. , Will realize about 1.6 billion U.S. dollars, or 96.45% of tariff reductions, of which about 1.02 billion U.S. dollars, or 61.45%, can be realized on the effective date of the agreement.

For my country's export companies, Australia will eventually achieve zero tariffs and the proportion of trade volume will reach 100%, and the tax cut transition period will not exceed 5 years. The products that China enjoys higher tariff reductions mainly include clothing and leather, electronics and machinery, other manufactured products, steel and metal products, and chemical products.

Australia continues to implement the GSP program for China, and the GSP certificate of origin is still applicable. Export companies can compare the tariff reductions enjoyed by exported goods and choose to apply for the China-Australia certificate of origin or the GSP certificate of origin.

13 China-Georgia FTA certificate of origin

Country: Georgia

The "Free Trade Agreement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of Georgia" officially came into effect on January 1, 2018 and started to be implemented. This is the first free trade agreement signed between my country and a country in the Eurasian region. With the preferential certificate of origin issued by the China-Georgia Free Trade Agreement issued by the inspection and quarantine department, the enterprise will enjoy the great discount of reducing the export tariff of 9,891 Chinese products to zero.

After the agreement comes into effect, in terms of trade in goods, Georgia will immediately implement zero tariffs on 96.5% of my country’s products, covering 99.6% of China’s total imports; my country will implement zero tariffs on 93.9% of China’s products, covering my country’s total imports. 93.8%, of which 90.9% of products (42.7% of imports) immediately implement zero tariffs, and the remaining 3% of products (51.1% of imports) will gradually be reduced to zero tariffs within 5 years. The electronic products, machinery and equipment, textile and clothing products, meat products, vegetables and fruits exported from our country to Georgia will have greater growth potential. This is currently the latest free trade agreement, and friends who are in Georgia or the surrounding markets can find out about it.