During the transition period, the 10 pilot cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Tianjin, Fuzhou and Pingtan will continue to supervise in accordance with the regulatory requirements before the implementation of the New Taxation Policy, that is, the “first-line” will not be inspected when entering the district. For the nuclear clearance form, the requirements for the first import license, registration or filing of cosmetics, infant formula milk powder, medical equipment, and special foods (including health foods, formula foods for special medical purposes, etc.) in the remarks of the "positive list" are temporarily not implemented.
Recently, the General Administration of Customs formally issued the "Notice on Implementation of the New Regulatory Requirements for Cross-border E-commerce Retail Imports." The previously rumored regulatory authority will set up the "One The "year buffer period" is officially settled.
policy
Retention tax system adjustment, other new policies suspended for one year
The notice clearly stated that during the transition period, the 10 pilot cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Tianjin, Fuzhou and Pingtan will continue to supervise in accordance with the regulatory requirements before the implementation of the new taxation policy. This means that in addition to the changes in the import tax system, the implementation of other regulations that are destructive to e-commerce in the previous new cross-border e-commerce policy has been suspended, showing that the regulatory authorities have made a significant decline in cross-border e-commerce business. Made appropriate concessions. It is reported that the transition period of this policy is until May 11, 2017.
Due to the high lethality, the high-profile implementation of the new cross-border e-commerce policy that began on April 8 this year will be partially suspended. Earlier this week, multiple sources confirmed that the General Administration of Customs, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and other departments have reached an agreement on this issue and decided to temporarily set a "one-year transition period" for some of the contents of the New Deal. A person familiar with the matter said that in fact the General Administration of Customs is only the executive department in the new cross-border e-commerce policy, and the suspension of the implementation of the new policy should be the decision of the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation and even higher authorities, only after the parties reached an agreement. Released by the General Administration of Customs.
survey
Haitao companies are in a "dead point for customs clearance"
Regarding the new policy of Haitao, the outsiders were most concerned about the tax and fee issue. That is, the original Haitao tax was paid in accordance with the postal tax and tax allowance model, but now all of it has become the new tax rate. This certainly adds a certain tax cost to overseas shopping companies, but in fact, the most fatal blow to overseas shopping companies in the New Deal provisions is the customs clearance system. This measure is called "customs clearance in desperation" by many e-commerce companies.
According to the New Deal, goods shipped by cross-border e-commerce after April 8 must provide customs clearance forms in accordance with general trade requirements. The so-called customs clearance form refers to the "entry cargo clearance form" issued by the inspection and quarantine agency. The required materials include the certificate of origin and the inspection and quarantine certificate. Cosmetics, health products and other commodities must also be registered with the Food and Drug Administration. Cross-border e-commerce companies can declare to the customs only after they have completed the inspection and obtained the customs clearance form issued by the inspection and quarantine department. This also means that the supervision of cross-border e-commerce bonded imports by the regulatory authorities is no different from general trade. And this customs clearance form is almost impossible for e-commerce companies that do not have brand-name channels to get goods from wholesalers.
In response to the rebound in e-commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine explained in a statement published on May 15 that the inspection and quarantine of cross-border e-commerce commodities should issue customs clearance forms in accordance with the law. At the same time, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine stated that "in fact, only 36% of the codes in the list are in the ‘legal inspection catalog’", which implies that most coded products are not affected.
In fact, an e-commerce company told a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily that although only 36% of the codes are in the "Legal Inspection Catalog", in fact, the most popular products of cross-border e-commerce are basically in the "Legal Inspection Catalog". Some e-commerce companies said, "If you calculate according to the value of the goods, it is estimated that more than 90% of the goods require customs clearance."
Follow up
Import orders in the bonded area fell by more than 60%
The issue of customs clearance not only caused a large number of e-commerce goods to be unable to be imported, but also directly affected the volume of import orders in many cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones and bonded areas. Previously, there were media reports that a large number of goods could not be imported because cross-border e-commerce platforms were unable to provide the qualifications and documents required for "customs clearance", and the volume of import orders in major cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones had dropped sharply. Between April 8th and April 15th, the import volume of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones such as Zhengzhou, Shenzhen, Ningbo, and Hangzhou dropped by 70%, 61%, 62% and 65% respectively compared to before the New Deal.
"It's certain that the industry's transaction volume has declined, mainly in cross-border e-commerce that adopts the bonded stocking model." According to a person familiar with the matter, after the implementation of the new policy, the overall outbound order volume and order volume of Jumei Youpin declined. Both are around 60%; the number of exit orders of companies in the region, such as Mi Bu Bao, NetEase Koala, etc., has also declined to varying degrees. NetEase Koala's orders dropped by 47% within 4 days after the implementation of the New Deal on April 8. All of these have directly caused a sharp drop in the import order volume of each comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zone. It is reported that the import volume of the Zhengzhou Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone has dropped by 70% compared with before the New Deal.
The so-called comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce is a policy exploration that is more conducive to cross-border e-commerce established on the concept of a traditional bonded area for the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce in my country. China designated Hangzhou as the first batch of cross-border e-commerce trade pilot zones in 2013. In January this year, it decided to promote the relevant policy systems and management systems of the China (Hangzhou) cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone to a larger scale. Comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce in Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Zhengzhou and other cities.
These pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce trade have the functions of bonded, display, and transaction. Not only can they realize the functions of a traditional bonded zone, but consumers can directly experience, place orders, and pick up goods in the industrial park, which is equivalent to being in a traditional bonded zone. On the basis of this, the transaction efficiency is further improved.
Inside story
The senior management decides to "suspend" around May 9
Starting from April 8th, my country has imposed tariffs, import value-added tax, and consumption tax on cross-border e-commerce retail imports. A new tax system called "to make e-commerce a good day to end" has officially come. Yesterday, a cross-border e-commerce person told reporters that in fact, as early as this month, they had vaguely received news of the suspension of the implementation of the New Deal. "It was about May 8th and 9th that we got news for the first time!" According to him According to the introduction, from the implementation of the New Deal on April 8 to May 8 when this information was obtained, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and other departments held surveys with the participation of cross-border e-commerce companies in many places. In the meeting, "on the one hand, it is listening to data, on the other hand, it is listening to suggestions, mainly listening to the company. According to him, in the first two weeks after the implementation of the New Deal, high-level meetings of these ministries and commissions began to convene intensively, and more were discussing various solutions, including whether it was necessary to postpone the implementation of the New Deal. "By May 8th and 9th, the parties basically reached an agreement to establish a one-year reprieve period. At present, the New Deal’s reprieve period ends on May 10, 2017, so the'suspended period' is indeed from that time. It was calculated at the beginning. However, the scope of the suspension was clear at that time. The tax system adjustment was retained, and the implementation of others was extended by one year until a new reasonable supervision method was formed."
Some merchants who do import trade through direct mail also vaguely felt that the policy seems to be adjusted not long ago. Some merchants chose to send potentially affected products to bonded warehouses in Hong Kong before the New Deal, and then send them to customers by direct mail. Initially, the speed of direct mail clearance was very slow and almost stalled; however, at the end of April, the speed of direct mail clearance increased significantly, and now it has almost returned to the level before the New Deal.
background
The first "release of water" to release infant formula
According to the reporter's understanding, this is actually not the first adjustment to this new policy, but it has been more euphemistic before, including a "positive list" for rapid adjustment.
The day before the implementation of the New Deal on April 8, the Ministry of Finance announced the "Cross-border E-commerce Retail Imported Goods List", but this list caused an uproar in the e-commerce industry because of the large cross-border fresh food. Food and liquid milk are not included in the list. Moreover, infant formula milk powder, one of the most concerned categories in overseas purchases, needs to be registered in accordance with the provisions of the Food Safety Law.
However, just as many e-commerce companies were in desperation, the second "positive list" was unexpectedly released on April 15. "Such a situation of drastically relaxing the policy after a week's interval has rarely happened before. This shows that the corporate pressure brought by the policy is really too great!" According to an e-commerce source, the second list is largely "released." "Water", although only 151 8-digit tariff code products were shortlisted, the infant formula milk powder that has received much attention can be "resurrected with blood", and it is stipulated that imported infant milk powder does not need to obtain the formula registration certificate of the relevant product until 2018. This is equivalent to a grace period of two years. At the same time, this list also has new explanations for imported health foods and cosmetics.