Measures for the Administration of Import Permits for Goods

Decree of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China

No. 27 of 2004

The Measures for the Administration of Import Licences for Goods were adopted by the 17th Ministerial Meeting of the Ministry of Commerce on December 9, 2004, and are hereby promulgated for implementation as of January 1, 2005.

December 10, 2004　　　

Measures for the Administration of Import Permits for Goods

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 These Measures are formulated in accordance with the provisions of the Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China and the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of Import and Export of Goods, in order to standardize the administration of import licenses, maintain the order of the import of goods and promote the healthy development of foreign trade.

Article 2 The State implements a unified licensing system for the import of goods. The State shall administer import licenses for goods whose import is restricted.

Article 3 The Ministry of Commerce is the focal point administration department for import licenses nationwide, and is responsible for formulating import licensing measures and rules and regulations, supervising and inspecting the implementation of import licensing measures, and punishing violations.

The Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with the General Administration of Customs, formulates, adjusts and publishes the annual Catalogue of Goods for Import License Management. The Ministry of Commerce is responsible for formulating, adjusting and publishing the annual Catalogue of Graded Issuance of Import License Management Goods.

The Catalogue of Goods for Import License Administration and the Catalogue for the Graded Issuance of Import License Administration are issued by the Ministry of Commerce in the form of announcements.

Article 4 The Quota and Licensing Affairs Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the Licensing Bureau) authorized by the Ministry of Commerce shall uniformly manage and guide the issuance of import licenses by all licensing agencies nationwide, and the Licensing Bureau shall be responsible to the Ministry of Commerce.

Article 5 The licensing bureau and the special commissioner offices of the Ministry of Commerce in various places (hereinafter referred to as the special offices), the departments of commerce (bureaus) and foreign economic and trade commissions (departments and bureaus) of other provincial capitals authorized by the Ministry of Commerce (hereinafter referred to as the local licensing agencies) shall be the import license issuing institutions, and shall be responsible for the issuance of certificates within the scope of authorization under the unified management of the licensing bureau.

Article 6 The import license is the legal certificate for the State to manage the import of goods. For goods subject to import license, unless otherwise stipulated by the State, foreign trade operators (hereinafter referred to as business operators) shall apply for an import license from the designated licensing agency before importing, and the Customs shall accept the declaration and inspection and release on the basis of the import license.

Article 7 The import license shall apply to the import of goods listed in the Catalogue of Goods under the Administration of Import License.

Article 8 Import licenses shall not be bought, sold, transferred, altered, forged or altered.

Chapter II: Documents to be submitted when applying for an import license

Article 9 When applying for an import license, proprietors shall conscientiously and truthfully fill in the application form for an import license and affix a seal.

Article 10: Based on the circumstances of the imported goods, proprietors shall, on the basis of the import license issuance of Chapter III of these Measures, submit the import approval documents and relevant materials provided for in Chapter III.

Article 11 Proprietors shall submit the "Business License for Registration of Enterprise Legal Persons" that has passed the annual inspection, the "Foreign Trade Operator Registration Form" affixed with the special seal for the filing and registration of foreign trade operators, or the qualification certificate of import and export enterprises. Where the proprietor is a foreign-invested enterprise, they shall also submit the foreign-invested enterprise approval certificate. Where the imported goods are state-run trade or have other qualification management requirements, the relevant documents of the Ministry of Commerce or relevant departments shall be provided.

Chapter III: Basis for the issuance of import licenses

Article 12 Each license-issuing institution shall issue import licenses in accordance with the following provisions in accordance with the scope of the Catalogue of Goods for Import License Administration and the Catalogue of Graded Issuance of Goods for Import License Administration formulated by the Ministry of Commerce:

(1) For controlled chemicals, the issuing institution shall issue an import license on the basis of the Import Approval Form for Controlled Chemicals approved by the Office of the National Leading Group for the Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the import contract (original copy).

(2) For precursor chemicals, the licensing agency shall issue an import license on the basis of the Ministry of Commerce's Import Approval Form for Precursor Chemicals.

(3) For ozone-depleting substances, the issuing agency shall issue an import license on the basis of the "Import Approval Form for Controlled Ozone-Depleting Substances" approved by the National Office for the Import and Export of Ozone-Depleting Substances.

(4) For other commodities that need to be restricted from import in accordance with laws and administrative regulations, the licensing authority shall issue an import license in accordance with the licensing documents issued by the competent department of commerce under the State Council or by it in conjunction with other relevant departments under the State Council.

Article 13 Import of controlled chemicals, precursor chemicals and ozone-depleting substances by means of processing trade shall be subject to an import license, and the issuing authority shall handle it in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs (1), (2) and (3) of Article 12 respectively.

Article 14: Foreign-invested enterprises importing controlled chemicals, precursor chemicals, and ozone-depleting substances shall obtain import licenses, and the issuing institutions shall handle them in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs (1), (2) and (3) of Article 12, respectively.

Article 15: When applying for an import license, business operators shall truthfully declare in accordance with the provisions of these Measures, must not engage in fraud, and are strictly prohibited from fraudulently obtaining import licenses by means such as false documents and contracts.

Chapter IV Issuance of Import Licenses

Article 16 The licensing authority shall issue import licenses for relevant commodities in strict accordance with the provisions of the annual Catalogue of Goods for Import License Administration and the Catalogue for the Graded Issuance of Goods for Import License Administration issued by the Ministry of Commerce. Proprietors importing commodities in the Catalogue of Goods Administered by Import Licence must apply for an import license from the licensing agency designated in the Catalogue of Goods Administered by Import License.

Article 17: Each license-issuing institution shall issue import licenses on the basis of the basis for issuing certificates provided for in Chapter III of these Measures, and must not issue import licenses beyond its authority or beyond the scope of issuance of certificates.

Article 18 The administration of import licenses shall be governed by "one certificate and one customs". Under normal circumstances, the import license is "one batch and one certificate", if you want to implement "one certificate for non-batch", you should also print the words "one certificate for one batch" in the remarks column of the import license.

"One certificate and one customs" means that the import license can only be declared at one customs; "One batch and one certificate" refers to the import license used once for customs declaration within the validity period; "Non-batch one certificate" means that the import license can be used for multiple customs declarations during the validity period, but not more than 12 times, and the customs will endorse and reduce the import quantity batch by batch in the "customs inspection and release endorsement column" on the back of the license.

For bulk and bulk goods subject to import license management, the overflow quantity shall be handled in accordance with international trade practice, that is, the overflow quantity of bulk and bulk goods imported through customs declaration shall not exceed 5% of the import quantity listed in the import license. For bulk and bulk goods that do not implement the "one batch, one certificate" system, when each batch of goods is imported, it shall be detained according to its actual import quantity, and when the last batch of imported goods is imported, its overflow quantity shall be calculated according to the actual remaining quantity of the license and within 5% of the specified overflow limit.

When issuing a license for such imported goods, the issuing authority shall issue the license in strict accordance with the quantity of the import quota and the quantity approved in the approval document, and deduct the quota quantity according to the actual quantity issued by the license, and shall not issue the license in addition to the quantity approved in the import quota or the quantity approved in the approval document to the overloaded quantity permitted in accordance with international trade practice.

Article 19: Where the application meets the requirements, the issuing institution shall issue an import license within 3 working days of receiving the application. In exceptional cases, the maximum is 10 working days.

Chapter V: Validity of Import Licenses

Article 20 The validity period of an import license shall be one year.

(1) The import license shall be issued within the validity period specified in the approval document of the import administration department.

(2) The import license is valid for the current year. If special circumstances require cross-year use, the validity period shall not exceed March 31 of the following year.

(3) The import license shall be used within the validity period, and the Customs shall not release it if it expires.

Article 21: Where an import license is not used within the validity period for any reason, proprietors shall submit an application for extension to the original permit-issuing authority during the validity period of the import license. The issuing institution shall withdraw the original certificate, cancel the original certificate in the import and export license computer management system, reissue the import license, and indicate the extension of use and the original certificate number in the remarks column.

If the import license is not used up within the validity period for any reason, the proprietor shall submit an application for extension of the unused part to the original licensing agency within the validity period of the import license, and the issuing institution shall withdraw the original certificate, verify the original certificate in the issuing system, and after deducting the quantity used, reissue the import license, and indicate the extension and the original certificate number in the remarks column.

The import license can only be renewed once, and the extension shall not exceed 3 months.

If the application for extension is not submitted within the validity period of the import license, the import license will expire on its own, the issuing agency will no longer accept the renewal procedures, and the import license shall be deemed to have been automatically abandoned by the holder.

Article 22 Once an import license is issued, the contents of the certificate shall not be changed without authorization. If a change is necessary, the proprietor shall submit an application for change within the validity period of the permit, and return the license to the original license-issuing institution, which shall reissue the license.

If the content of the license change involves the operator, the import commodity tax number, quantity, amount, price, origin, import purpose, source of foreign exchange, trade method, customs declaration port and other columns, if the original approval agency has corresponding restrictions, the business operator shall provide the documents agreed by the original approval body to change.

Article 23 If an import license that has already been obtained is lost, the proprietor shall immediately report the loss in writing to the customs and relevant issuing authority of the port of import indicated on the surface of the permit, declare it invalid, and promptly report the case to the public security organ. Upon receipt of the operator's loss report, the issuing agency may, after verifying that the certificate has not been cleared and used, revoke the original import license and issue a new certificate.

Article 24: Customs, industry and commerce, public security, discipline inspection, courts, and other units that need to inquire into or investigate import licenses from the permit-issuing agency shall present the relevant certificates in accordance with law, and the permit-issuing organ shall accept the inquiry.

Article 25 When adjusting the licensing body for import license management commodities, the original licensing institution shall not issue another import license for the commodity from the date of adjustment, and report the application status of the business operators before the adjustment to the adjusted licensing body. Licences applied for by operators prior to the adjustment shall remain valid for the duration of their validity. Import licenses that are not used or not used in full within the validity period shall go through the extension procedures at the adjusted issuing agency according to regulations.

Chapter VI: Inspection and Punishment

Article 26 The Ministry of Commerce authorizes the Licensing Bureau to conduct regular inspections of each license-issuing institution. The content of the inspection is the implementation of these Measures by the issuing institution, focusing on checking whether there are violations such as exceeding the authority or issuing certificates without approval. The method of inspection shall be a combination of regular or irregular self-inspection by each licensing agency and random inspection by the licensing bureau. The licensing bureau shall report the inspection to the Ministry of Commerce.

Article 27: Each license-issuing institution shall promptly transmit the issuance data in accordance with the provisions of the Ministry of Commerce on online verification of licenses, so as to ensure the smooth customs declaration and customs verification of business operators; The verification data fed back by the Customs shall be carefully checked, and the use of permits shall be checked in a timely manner and existing problems shall be identified. The licensing bureau shall periodically report the checked customs feedback verification data to the Ministry of Commerce.

Article 28 An import license that exceeds the authority or is issued without valid approval documents shall be invalid. The Ministry of Commerce will, depending on the seriousness of the circumstances, give a warning, suspend or cancel the right to issue a license.

Article 29: Where an import license is fraudulently obtained by fraud or other improper means in violation of these Measures, the Ministry of Commerce may not accept an application for an import license submitted by the offender for 3 years, or prohibit the offender from engaging in the import business activities of the relevant goods within a period of not less than 1 year but not more than 3 years.

Article 30: Those who forge, alter or buy or sell import licenses shall be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Law on the crime of illegal business operations or the crime of forging, altering, or buying or selling official documents, certificates or seals of State organs; where the criminal penalty is not sufficient, the penalty shall be imposed in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Customs Law; The Ministry of Commerce may prohibit offenders from engaging in import business activities for a period of not less than one year but less than three years.

Article 31 Once the import licenses referred to in Articles 28, 29 and 30 are verified, the Ministry of Commerce shall confiscate or revoke them. The licensing authority shall give a clear answer and actively cooperate with issues involving the above-mentioned permits discovered by the Customs in the course of actual supervision or case handling.

Article 32: Where a staff member of a permit-issuing institution has conduct in violation but does not yet constitute a crime, he shall be transferred from his or her post and given administrative sanctions depending on the seriousness of the circumstances; Where a crime is constituted, it shall be transferred to the judicial organs for investigation of criminal responsibility in accordance with law.

Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions

Article 33 Where laws and administrative regulations have other provisions on the administration of the import of goods in bonded warehouses, bonded zones and export processing zones, they shall be handled in accordance with those provisions.

Article 34: The Ministry of Commerce is responsible for the interpretation of these Measures.

Article 35: These Measures shall take effect on January 1, 2005. The Measures for the Administration of Import Licenses for Goods (Order No. 22 of 2001 of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation) issued by the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation were abolished at the same time.