By AN MINGHAO and YIN WEINA

The Hangzhou-Shenzhen regional customs clearance mode promoted by the customs offices in Hangzhou and Shenzhen was recently launched, meaning regional fast customs clearance networks among foreign trade enterprises in Zhejiang will extend to the Pearl River Delta region.

Zhejiang enterprises will be able to reduce costs and improve international competitiveness by taking advantage of the dense route of international containers and the fast transshipment traffic in Pearl River Delta ports.

The regional customs clearance reform with “Local Declaration, Port Verification and Discharge” as the main component, is a new customs clearance operating method that has been widely promoted by the General Administration of Customs of China in the past few years.

Under the new mode, enterprises can autonomously choose to declare to the local customs and finish the verification and discharge of goods at the ports during the import and export process.

By choosing this mode, importing and exporting enterprises can achieve the goal of “one declaration, one check and one discharge” via declaring at home, transacting the discharge, and then finishing delivery and shipment procedures at the ports. The enterprises can also autonomously choose conveyance, transportation route and time to improve the efficiency of customs clearance and lower logistical costs.

At the beginning of last year, Hangzhou Customs noticed that the Shenzhen Port has become one of the most important import-export ports for local enterprises. In Xiaoshan district alone, cargo valued at $200 million from the foreign trade enterprises were imported and exported at Shenzhen Port each year.

Customs offices in Hangzhou and Shenzhen decided to open a regional customs clearance composite mode of “Local Declaration, Port Verification and Discharge” and “Cross-border Fast Customs Clearance” last October.

Foreign trade enterprises in Zhejiang may not only achieve the goal of “declaration at home, discharge at Shenzhen,” but can easily finish the Shenzhen-Hong Kong fast customs clearance via the barrier-free access between cross-border vehicles and inland vehicles under customs’ supervision.

After a year of experimental work in Shaoxing, this mode has been widely promoted in the past few days.

Hangzhou Customs has successively established regional customs clearance businesses with Shanghai, Ningbo and Nanjing Ports.

According to calculations, the average efficiency on customs clearance of those foreign trade enterprises participating in the “Yangtze River Delta Regional Customs Clearance” increased 40 percent, and logistical costs fell 20 percent.

A source for the customs office in Hangzhou said that by taking the Hangzhou-Shenzhen regional customs clearance composite mode, the enterprises’ average efficiency on customs clearance may increase by nearly 50 percent, and its integrative logistic costs may fall by 30 percent.

Zhejiang Qingmao Textile Printing and Dyeing Corporation, located in Shaoxing, has reaped rewards.

“We used to call back to pick up the goods after the customs document was discharged at Shenzhen Port and use the special supervision vehicles to transport them. Both human cost and business cost were higher,” said Xu Feng, the company spokesman.

“Now, with the new mode, it is faster as the cargos themselves can be delivered to the Shenzhen Port and be verified and discharged.”