China General Administration of Customs 3 Stipulation Scheme Unveiled

Takehome:

• GAC shoulders the responsibility of inspection and quarantine, tariff collection, anti-smuggling management and compilation of custom data.
• The newly-established Import and Export Food Safety Bureau takes charge of inspection and quarantine and safety/quality supervision of imported cosmetics.
• GAC shall enhance cooperation with SAMR to promote comprehensive supply chain supervision.

Following the release of SAMR’s Stipulation Scheme (and its subordinate department China National Drug Administration), China General Administration of Customs (GAC) unveiled its own scheme specifying its functions, subsidiary divisions and staff allocation.

GAC now comprises 19 subordinate bodies (previous 17), three of which are tasked with administrating importation of cosmetics:

• Import and Export Food Safety Bureau is newly established to formulate and implement regulatory standards for safety/quality supervisions as well as inspection and quarantine on import and export cosmetics.
• Commodity Inspection Department will formulate regulations of legal inspection for import and export goods and undertake safety risk assessment, risk alarm and quick response work. Besides, the department is in charge of the entry verification for import commodities subject to import license system.
• Port Inspection Department will implement customs supervision and administration of import and export cosmetics, foods, animals, plants, other commodities and entry-exit people. It is responsible for supervision on prohibited or limited items.

GAC Major Responsibilities include:

1. Inspection and Quarantine

GAC is responsible for the legal inspection, quarantine and verification of imported cosmetics and other commodities. The sanitary inspection and animal and plant inspection are also within the scope of duties.

2. Tariffs Management

GAC is responsible for formulating tariff standards and goods nomenclatures and collecting tariffs on import and export cosmetics and etc.

3. Anti-smuggling Management

GAC investigates and penalizes smuggling or violations of customs regulations.

4. Statistics Compiling

GAC will compile and release customs operation statistics to establish a public information service platform for import and export enterprises.

GAC Function Transformation:

1. Extend the range of supervisions from customs clearance at port to overall entry-exit process and strengthen joint supervision.
2. Merge Custom Declaration, Inspection and Quarantine Declaration into an integrated form to streamline clearance processes and improve efficiency.
3. Optimize the layout of ports and close ports with small business volumes to reign in disorderly competition and low-grade repetitive activities.

Additionally, GAC will coordinate with other ministries to optimize comprehensive supervision on imports and exports. Interaction with SAMR will directly affect the cosmetic sector.

• Certain mechanisms will be established between the two departments to avoid redundancy and overlap of administrative duties.
• Collaboration mechanisms on information sharing of substandard import/export cosmetics will be established. SAMR manages the recall of unqualified import/export cosmetic products while GAC takes relevant measures for enterprises refusing to comply to relevant laws.