The “two-step declaration” reform has innovated the management concept, changed the supervision mode and made “zero-lag customs clearance” a new normal. As of December 20, the Ningbo Customs’ “two-step declaration” declaration change rate decreased by 6 percentage points, the manual intervention rate decreased by 15 percentage points, the overall import clearance time was shortened to 18.63 hours, and the enterprise clearance speed increased by 48.25%.

According to Ningbo Customs, under this new customs clearance mode, enterprises do not need to submit all declaration information and documents at one time, and the entire declaration process can be carried out in two steps. In the first step, the enterprise can complete the summary declaration and lift the goods only based on the main information of the bill of lading. In the second step, the enterprise completes the complete declaration within 14 days from the entry of the transport vehicle declaration into the country, and supplements the submission to meet the tax collection and management, customs statistics, etc. Relevant information and documents required to complete the tax payment process in accordance with regulations.

The “two-step declaration” allows cross-border e-commerce to gradually eliminate overseas tallying links and instead set up centralized logistics centers at major domestic ports, thereby achieving a high degree of intensification in customs clearance, tallying, transportation, warehousing, and trading.

Executive Editor: Ye Ke

Translation: Ye Ke, Chen Wenjing