Measures of the Customs of the People’s Republic of China for the Supervision of Transit Goods

November 2022

Lihui Jiang and Teresa Huang

The General Administration of Customs issued on September 26, 2022 the Measures of the Customs of the People’s Republic of China for the Supervision of Transit Goods (hereinafter referred to as the “Measures”), which shall come into effect on November 1, 2022, when the May 29, 2018 version of the Measures of the Customs of the People’s Republic of China for the Supervision and Administration of Transit Goods (hereinafter referred to as the “Previous Measures”) will be repealed at the same time. The Measures partially amend the content of the Previous Measures, with the following significant changes:

1. Increased the types of goods prohibited from transit.

Article 3 of the Measures enumerates the goods prohibited from transit and increases some new goods prohibited from transit in the following three aspects: dangerousness, animals and plants, and ideology.  Specifically, they include hazardous wastes, radioactive wastes, microorganisms, human tissues, biological products, blood and their products, invasive alien species, ivory and other endangered animals and plants and their products, and goods causing harm to China’s politics, economy, culture, and morality.

2. Added provisions on transit animals and plants, transit animal and plant products and other quarantine items for transit goods.

The Previous Measures did not classify the goods in transit or make special provisions on particular goods for the supervision of transit goods.  However, Articles 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the Measures added some special provisions on transit animals and plants, animal and plant products and other quarantine items, mainly including whether to unload goods from the means of transport, transport routes, ports of entry, quarantine requirements, etc.

3. Added provisions on penalties for failure to declare or false declaration of transit goods, and introduced criminal liability.

The Measures added penalties on the declaration of transit goods.  Article 20 of the Measures stipulates that if any transit goods are not declared or declared inaccurately, the Customs may give a warning or impose a fine of less than RMB30,000.  In addition, it also provides that if the violation constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility shall be investigated in accordance with law.  From this article, it can be seen that the Customs is attaching increasing importance to the supervision of the declaration of transit goods.

Overall, compared to the Previous Measures, the Measures deleted some detailed procedural provisions and strengthened the supervision on transit goods by adding new types of goods prohibited from transit, special provisions on particular transit goods, as well as provisions on penalties and criminal liability.


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