General

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) officially entered into force on January 1, 2022. Over the past year, the "circle of friends" of RCEP member countries has been expanding, and has successively entered into force for 13 of the 15 signatories, highlighting the strong vitality and vitality, and international trade enterprises have ushered in broader opportunities. According to statistics, in 2022, Kunming Customs issued a total of 4075 preferential certificates of origin under the RCEP for export enterprises in Yunnan Province, with the value of 981 million yuan, and can enjoy about 24.52 million yuan of tariff concessions from import countries; A total of 87000 preferential certificates of origin were issued for the goods exported to the RCEP contracting countries, with a value of 17.4 billion yuan, and can enjoy the tariff reduction of about 435 million yuan from the importing country.

Helping enterprises enjoy benefits and achieve results

As the evidence of tariff reduction between the contracting countries under the Free Trade Agreement, the Certificate of Origin can enjoy import tariff reduction of different ranges. After the entry into force of the RCEP, the import tariff of more than 90% of the products under the agreement will gradually be zero, which plays an important role in improving the competitiveness of enterprises and stabilizing and expanding the ASEAN market.

Recently, Zhangfeng Customs, affiliated to Kunming Customs, issued for Longchuan Baixin Tape Co., Ltd. the first RCEP certificate of origin for Myanmar in Yunnan Province after the RCEP Agreement came into force.

"The value of this batch of domestic rubber belts we exported is about 338000 yuan. By issuing the RCEP certificate of origin, the tariff rate of the other country has been reduced from 7% to 0, saving 23000 yuan compared with the previous one. It is estimated that it can save 1.4 million yuan annually, which can maintain its advantage in the increasingly fierce international market competition." Wang Haokun, the company's head, said that the value of rubber belts exported to Myanmar each year is more than 20 million yuan, and the market share remains about 60%.

In order to promote the implementation of RCEP in a high quality and effective manner, Kunming Customs, focusing on the goal of promoting the stability and quality of foreign trade, worked closely with its member units to enrich the audience of the RCEP policy, deepen the interpretation of the rules of origin, and effectively enhance the awareness of international trade enterprises and the public through training courses and other forms.

"In contrast to the RCEP tariff concession form of member countries and in combination with the key import and export commodities of Yunnan, we have formed the RCEP tariff preference form for goods and issued it to enterprises. Last November, we also jointly issued the" Guidelines for the Application of the Key Rules of RCEP "with the Provincial Department of Commerce to provide targeted assistance and guidance, and encourage enterprises to understand and use the rules of origin, expand product advantages, reduce production costs, and create more competitive products in the market." Liu Yan, deputy director of the Customs Department of Kunming Customs, introduced.

Expand openness and promote development

"Most of the pyrethrum powder produced by our company is exported to Japan. After the RCEP came into effect, the tariff rate of the other country has been reduced from 12% to 0, and the average tariff reduction of 30000 yuan can be enjoyed for each batch. This is a real benefit!" said Yang Jue, customs officer of Yuxi Nanbao Biotechnology Co., Ltd., who said that the tariff reduction of about 600000 yuan for the export of pyrethrum powder alone last year.

Compared with the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, RCEP has added Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Among them, China and Japan have established a free trade relationship for the first time. Over the past year, the advantages of the New Deal have helped the international trade of the two countries run out of "acceleration". Kunming Customs seized the opportunity to fully understand the relevant situation of the export of Japanese products by enterprises under its jurisdiction, adopted the "one enterprise and one policy" special personnel to dock enterprises, guided the inquiry of the product treaty tax rate online and offline, and made full use of the tax sharing list to ensure that enterprises enjoy the optimal tax rate.

As the "business card" of Yunnan plateau, Tricholoma matsutake is also one of the beneficiaries of RCEP. "The matsutake we operate is mainly exported to Japan. Since the implementation of RCEP, the customs has publicized relevant policy dividends and specific operation procedures for us many times, opened a green channel, provided us with more opportunities to develop new business, and also gave us more room to negotiate prices," said Tang Xijin, chairman of the Matsutake Professional Committee of Yunnan Chamber of Commerce. In 2022, Kunming Customs issued 687 certificates of origin of RCEP for export of Japanese fresh matsutake, with a value of 157 million yuan.

Liu Yan said that the effective implementation of RCEP has brought broader business opportunities for the characteristic industries of Yunnan Province to go abroad. Among them, the most obvious benefits are fungi, vegetables, fruits, traditional Chinese medicine and other plateau characteristic products. As the strength of the RCEP tariff reduction policy increases year by year, enterprises are more willing to use the RCEP policy, which will inject new vitality into the high-quality development of the border areas.

Ask about the need to solve difficult problems

Because of the replacement of the old and new format of the certificate, the system data transmission and other reasons, enterprises sometimes encounter situations such as not being able to enjoy the benefits normally in the actual operation. In March 2022, Yuxi Customs issued a RCEP certificate for a batch of packaging materials exported by Yunnan Hongchuang Packaging Factory to Thailand. However, after the customs officer actively tracked and learned that the batch of products did not enjoy tariff relief in Thailand, the customs officer immediately contacted the export enterprise, found out the blocked links by querying the product HS code, invoice, and benefit list, and finally won 3% tariff relief for the company.

"We set up a special window for RCEP service, set up a relevant Q&A group, provide consulting services for enterprises 24 hours, carry out special training on tariff concession commitments, rules of origin and other contents that enterprises are concerned about, provide comprehensive services such as tariff comparison of free trade agreements, policy and regulation consultation, and timely solve the problem of blocked benefits, covering more than 100 enterprises." Li Xinti, head of the comprehensive business section of Yuxi Customs, introduced.

Benefit the enterprise, facilitate the people and optimize the environment

Recently, Yunnan Tin Industry Co., Ltd. issued an independent declaration of approved exporter for the tin ingots exported by the company. "Yunxi is the earliest international trade enterprise in Yunnan. After the implementation of RCEP, we have become the first approved exporter in Yunnan and issued the first independent declaration of approved exporter in the province, which is quite meaningful." Wu Jianxun, deputy general manager of Yunxi, said, "We can obtain tariff reduction in the import country by using the independent declaration of approved exporter issued by ourselves."

The approved exporter system is one of the highlights of RCEP. Enterprises that become approved exporters do not need to apply for the certificate of origin to the customs one by one when exporting their goods. Enterprises can independently issue a declaration of origin at any time for the export goods to enjoy the benefits in the importing country, with the same effect as the certificate of origin issued by the customs. The issuing time is shorter, and the goods flow through customs is faster. In 2022, the approved exporter identified by Kunming Customs issued 9 independent declaration of origin for export to RCEP countries, with the value of goods exceeding 40 million yuan.

"We went to enterprises point-to-point to promote the independent declaration system of the origin of approved exporters, guided enterprises to do a good job in the identification and application of approved exporters, and explained the relevant business knowledge of the certificate of origin 'intelligent audit+self-service printing' to enterprises in real time, launched the RCEP origin management system 3.0, promoted the whole process of the certificate of origin processing to be electronic, and realized the 'second' signature and 'zero leg' of the certificate of origin with the report." Chen Zhong, the fourth senior director of the Customs Office of Kunming Customs, said.

"Smart audit+self-service printing" means that for the declaration data of the certificate of origin, the certificate of origin management system will audit according to the preset audit rules, and make the audit conclusion of passing the audit, returning for modification, manual review and sampling check. The enterprise can print the formatted certificate of origin approved by the customs through the international trade single window, Make the country of origin visa enter the high-speed era of "reporting, reviewing and receiving immediately". At present, the self-service printing rate of certificate of origin in Yunnan Province has reached 55.89%.

Kunming Customs also set up a "customs clearance guide" to guide enterprises to optimize the export declaration strategy under the framework of the RCEP agreement by providing enterprises with multiple declaration methods such as "two-step declaration" and "advance declaration", simplify the import and export supervision documents and accompanying documents, minimize the compliance costs of trade links with the member countries of the RCEP, and ensure that the goods under the agreement are more preferential and convenient in the customs clearance process.

"Kunming Customs will continue to guide and encourage enterprises to make good use of the RCEP tariff concessions and cumulative origin policies, seize the new opportunities of the" golden line "of the China Laos railway, use the back-to-back certificate of origin system and other systems to develop the industrial chain supply chain with higher added value, support enterprises to expand the international trade market by virtue of open platforms such as cross-border e-commerce, improve the structure of export commodities, and improve the" soft environment "of cross-border trade to grasp the favorable RCEP policies‘ Hard power. " Liu Yan said.