General

Recently, Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd., located in Yantai, Shandong, declared to export a batch of chemical products worth more than 700000 yuan in international trade to Japan. With the declaration of origin of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) independently issued by the enterprise, the import tariff rate applicable to goods when they are cleared in Japan will be reduced from 3.9% to 3.2%, enjoying tariff concessions of about 5000 yuan.

"After being recognized as an approved exporter by Qingdao Customs, we can independently issue the declaration of origin of RCEP, making production and shipment more flexible." Ye Ming, market manager of Wanhua Chemical Group, said that since this year, the company has issued more than 700 RCEP country of origin declarations, accounting for more than half of the total number of certificates of origin under the FTA.

As China has signed more and more free trade agreements, and the level of openness has been rising, international trade enterprises are more convenient to enjoy benefits. At the same time, the scale of benefit sharing is also expanding, and export competitiveness continues to improve.

Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd. is a new chemical material enterprise with global operation. In the process of building a global high standard free trade zone network in China, the enterprise has only applied for 30 certificates of origin of free trade agreements since 2012, constantly achieving leapfrog development. In the first 10 months of this year, enterprises applied for or issued more than 1200 certificates of origin of the Free Trade Agreement. The value of goods enjoying benefits from international trade exports was nearly 1 billion yuan, more than 50 times that of the whole year of 2012, and they could enjoy more than 16 million yuan of foreign tariff concessions.

"At present, China has signed 19 free trade agreements with 26 countries and regions. In the past decade, Japan, South Korea, Australia and other major trade partners have successively been included in China's free trade 'circle of friends'. The scale of free trade agreements for enterprises to enjoy benefits has been expanding. Tariff concessions under free trade agreements have become an important engine for export growth." Yao Yong, the first level senior director of Qingdao Customs Tariff Office, introduced.

In 2021, Qingdao Customs, Jinan Customs and Shandong Council for the Promotion of International Trade system will issue free trade agreement certificates of origin for a total of 731000 batches of export goods, with the value of export goods enjoying benefits of 189 billion yuan, a five fold increase over 2012. In the first 10 months of this year, Qingdao Customs, Jinan Customs and the Shandong Council for the Promotion of International Trade issued FTA certificates of origin for 742000 batches of export goods. The value of the preferential goods for export was 221.32 billion yuan, which has exceeded that of last year and reached 7 times of that of 2012.

Tariff concession is the most important institutional opening result of free trade agreements such as RCEP in the field of goods trade, and the certificate of origin is an important voucher for enterprises to enjoy tariff concession under RCEP. The level of origin management of the customs and CCPIT directly determines the degree of facilitation for enterprises to enjoy benefits. The customs and CCPIT in Shandong Province, through innovative regulatory models, initiated the nationwide mutual recognition of origin survey results, and constantly improved the facilitation level of free trade agreements for enterprises to enjoy benefits.

Recently, Heze Customs under Qingdao Customs and Heze Council for the Promotion of International Trade jointly checked the origin visa of Shandong Tianmei Co., Ltd.

"Because of the needs of foreign customers, we apply for different certificates of origin at the customs and CCPIT." Zhang Baoshan, the general manager of the company, said that the joint verification of the two competent departments effectively solved the repeated verification of enterprises by different visa agencies on the origin visa issues.

"In recent years, the customs in Shandong Province and the CCPIT have continued to strengthen information sharing, initiated the national initiative of mutual recognition of origin survey results, promoted the acceptance of consular certification of certificates of origin, and jointly carried out origin visa verification to facilitate enterprises to enjoy the benefits of free trade agreements." Liu Jie, deputy director of the Commercial Legal Service Center of the CCPIT Shandong Council, said.

Weihai Zhongzehong Import and Export Co., Ltd. is a foreign trade enterprise newly established in November this year, which is engaged in the export business of Korean fresh seafood. When conducting international trade business, the enterprise also enjoys the policy dividend brought by management innovation.

After Li Xueyan, the business manager of the company, completed the filing and registration of foreign trade operators at the Bureau of Commerce of Wendeng District, Weihai City, he went directly to the office of Weihai Customs in Wendeng to issue the certificate of origin based on the unified social credit code, thus eliminating the need to go through the filing formalities of the origin and simplifying the work process.

The "two certificates in one" measure, which facilitates the filing of foreign trade operators and the filing of enterprises of origin, is a reform initiated by Shandong in August 2015.

"As the reform benefits more and more, and the level of informatization is also getting higher and higher, the monthly information exchange between the customs and the Department of Commerce of the registered enterprises has also been changed into real-time interaction of the informatization system." Zhao Guangying, the chief of the Origin Management Section of Qingdao Customs Tariff Office, who witnessed the promotion of "two certificates in one" from Shandong to the whole country, said that at present, more than 100000 international trade enterprises in Shandong have benefited from the "two certificates in one" of foreign trade operator registration and origin enterprise registration.

"In recent years, Qingdao Customs, together with CCPIT Shandong Council, the Department of Commerce and other organizations, has actively promoted the year of RCEP implementation and the year of origin management improvement, promoted management innovation around 'one mechanism, two centers and three platforms', and promoted the full release of dividends from RCEP and other free trade agreements." Yao Yong introduced that in the next step, each department will continue to give play to the functional advantages of the implementation of free trade agreements such as RCEP, accelerate the construction of the innovation test base for RCEP regulatory services, take the lead in benchmarking international high-level economic and trade rules such as RCEP and CPTPP, continue to empower various open platforms, and help Shandong to open up at a higher level and develop at a higher quality.