A joint press conference was held on October 30 by the General Administration of Customs and CCPIT. It was declared at the conference that the application for CCPIT Certificate of Origin was officially launched on the website of China International Trade “Single Window” wher companies can finish all procedures for applying for the certificate electronically.
Proposed in the Recommendation No. 33 of UN/CEFACT, Single Window is a system that allows all parties involved in international trade and transportation to lodge standardized information and documents with a single-entry point to fulfill all legal and regulatory requirements. With the system, multiple applications and application to multiple agencies can be avoided, achieving the coordination, simplification and standardization of data and documents and improve the transparency of government regulation and promoting international trade facilitation.
Bai Shi, Deputy Director General of the National Office of Port Administration, said at the press conference, Single Window is an effective facility for promoting cross-border trade facilitation and improving business environment and also a platform for improving the port comprehensive management system and promoting governance modernization and shaping the new international economic governance pattern. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach so much importance to the building of the Single Window system that it has been included into the “Government Work Report” for three consecutive years.
As the lead agency of building Single Window, the General Administration of Customs (National Office of Port Administration) works together with the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Transport and CCPIT and other port and trade authorities to push forward the construction and promotion of the Single Window system by following through the decisions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. Up till now, the Single Window system has been connected with the systems of 25 ministries. It is able to fulfill 12 basic functions, such as cargo declaration, manifest filing, transport vehicles declaration, exhibits declaration, license application, certificate of origin application, company qualifications application, query statistics, export rebates, tax payment, processing trade and bond, as well as cross-border e-commerce. It can satisfy the needs of all sea, air and land ports and the needs of special supervision areas, free trade pilot zones and cross-border pilot zones. “Single point connection, single submission, single check, single tracking, single processing” have been achieved, which has dramatically reduced the costs and time of customs clearance, and eased companies’ burden. Such changes are warmly welcomed by companies. All applications done through the “Single Window” are free to companies. The record single-day application on the platform has exceeded 860, 000 and over 80% of major applications are done here. Over 600, 000 users have been registered and a total 145 million applications have been made so far.
In the future, the Single Window system will be extended from customs clearance to the whole chain of international trade management. It will be connected with banking, insurance, postal service, civil aviation and railway industries to create a “one-stop” trade service platform so as to provide better services to businesses and create a more efficient, convenient, open and transparent port business environment.
Certificate of Origin is the legal proof for exports to enjoy tariff reductions at the importer and is known as “paper gold” in international trade. Bai Shi noted, the launch of application for Certificate of Origin on the Single Window is a measure taken by the General Administration of Customs and CCPIT to deepen the service reform and to promote trade facilitation. It has been well received by companies since its launch on September 20 and will be expanded across the whole country on November 1 to further unleash the dividends of reform.
Yan Yun, Deputy Director General of CCPIT Commercial Certification Center, said, adding application for CCPIT Certificate of Origin onto the Single Window helps maintain CCPIT advantages in the world-leading electronic Certificate of Origin plan indigenously developed by CCPIT and its security anti-counterfeiting printing technology and its “five-minute service” model with no office visits needed. Companies can file the application electronically and print it out on their own and check the data real-time globally. The Single Window system and CCPIT place of origin issuance system are connected in a general model, realizing the information sharing, business coordination and connectivity among different departments.
According to Yan Yun, as China’s largest trade and investment promotion agency, CCPIT serves over 200, 000 companies and issues about 4 million certificates of origin every year on average with technologically advanced place of origin service network covering the whole country and 338 local agencies and over 2, 000 staff. To follow through the State Council’s requirements on “Internet + Government Service”, CCPIT is promoting the application of certificate of origin across the whole country with the aim of improving speed, efficiency and reducing burden. CCPIT realized anti-counterfeit printing through innovation, data connectivity and cross-border transport. And the “five-minute service” model without office visits is rolled out the whole country from the provincial to city and county level so as to achieve the goal of “keeping data, instead of companies, busy”.
“With the Internet and a printer, companies can apply for Certificate of Origin anywher 365/24 and the real-time data of the certificate is available anywher in the world.” Yan Yun said, “Over 16, 000 companies have printed out CCPIT Certificate of Origin by themselves, enjoying the benefit of ‘no office visits’”.
The CCPIT Certificate of Origin “China Standards” are also widely recognized by the international community and recommended by World Customs Organisation and International Chamber of Commerce.
According to Yan Yun, as member of ICC/WCF International Certificate of Origin Council, member of International Certificate of Origin Certification Committee and core member of the Working Group on Electronic Certificate of Origin, CCPIT is an active participant of the development of international origin projects and formulation of standards and rules. CCPIT has been maintaining a good relationship with World Customs Organization, foreign missions in China, major countries and major international chambers and customs authorities of the Belt and Road key countries with mechanized exchange and cooperation in an effort to create a favorable environment for international trade.
Yan Yun also added, CCPIT will continue to increase connections with all sectors to improve the efficiency and quality of origin-related work and actively participate into the construction of Single Window and Free trade Zone. The following work will be taken as priorities to serve the development of Chinese companies and China’s foreign trade: First, efforts will be made to provide more government services via the Internet, streamline procedures and improve service system while using big data, cloud computing and AI to improve the automation and efficiency of services; Second, efforts will be made to take part in the construction of international trade Single Window system to create world-class Single Window and to improve trade facilitation and optimize business environment; Third, CCPIT will work together with customs and commerce authorities to expand the application of electronic certificate of origin into more free trade agreements and promote the cross-border transmission of e-certificate data to further facilitate the use of Certificate of Origin. In addition, publicity for free trade agreement and policies will be made and its implementation results will be appraised and analyzed.
