On June 2, 2023, the “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement” (RCEP) officially came into full effect.
Over the past three years, Zhaoqing Customs has based on the actual development of the foreign trade industry in its jurisdiction, accurately focused on the pain points and difficulties of enterprises’ exports, continued to optimize origin services, and deepened the effectiveness of policy implementation. Through full-chain and refined enterprise-benefit services, Zhaoqing Customs has fully released the policy dividends of free trade agreements, effectively reduced the cost of overseas operations for enterprises, and continued to activate new vitality for the high-quality development of local foreign trade.
Recently, a batch of cleaning agents worth 760,000 yuan from Guangdong Haoshun Odis Technology Co., Ltd. was successfully exported to Japan through Yantian Port. Relying on the RCEP certificate of origin issued by Zhaoqing Customs, this batch of goods can enjoy a tariff reduction of about 12,200 yuan in the importing country, and truly enjoy the policy benefits brought by the regional free trade agreement. This is also a vivid epitome of Zhaoqing Customs’ precise empowerment of small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises and the tax benefits of landing.
In order to allow the RCEP policy dividends to reach market entities accurately and directly, Zhaoqing Customs has carried out an in-depth special action of “Tax Preferential Empowerment” to build an all-round and three-dimensional policy service system.
On the one hand, it innovates and implements the integrated publicity model of “online publicity + offline visits”, tailors exclusive preferential programs for key foreign trade companies and featured industries in the jurisdiction, and provides one-on-one answers to difficult questions such as rules of origin, tariff concessions, and certificate applications, breaking down corporate policy cognitive barriers, and helping companies accurately take the “express train” of RCEP benefits.
On the other hand, we will continue to deepen the reform of customs clearance facilitation, comprehensively promote convenient measures such as “intelligent review, paperless declaration, and self-service printing” for certificates of origin, significantly shorten the time limit for certificate processing, and simplify the application process, making it more efficient for enterprises to apply for certificates and enjoy benefits more conveniently.
As more than 90% of goods traded in the RCEP area gradually achieve zero tariffs, the level of regional trade liberalization continues to improve, and the international competitiveness of Zhaoqing’s export products has steadily increased.
Statistics show that in the three years since RCEP came into effect, Zhaoqing Customs has issued more than 2,400 RCEP certificates of origin, with a visa value of 669 million yuan, helping export companies in the jurisdiction to enjoy tariff reductions of more than 10 million yuan.
Zhaoqing’s unique and advantageous export products such as cleaning agents, lubricants, spray paints, and frozen fish fillets have fully unleashed its industrial advantages, and the scale of benefits has continued to expand and the benefits have become increasingly prominent.
While policy dividends continue to be released, the team of enterprises enjoying benefits in the jurisdiction has also achieved steady expansion.
In the past three years, the number of enterprises enjoying RCEP benefits in Zhaoqing has increased from the initial 12 to 35. The enthusiasm and initiative of enterprises to participate in RCEP regional trade have greatly increased, and the vitality of foreign trade entities continues to burst out.
Since the beginning of this year, the effectiveness of RCEP policy empowerment has continued to rise. In the first five months, Zhaoqing enterprises have applied for 397 RCEP certificates of origin, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%. The visa value of goods is 117 million yuan. They are expected to enjoy tariff concessions of more than 1.87 million yuan. The amount of tariff reductions has increased by 26.4% year-on-year, achieving “three growths” in visa volume, goods value, and exemption bonuses.
The relevant person in charge of the International Sales Department of Guangdong Haoshun Odis Technology Co., Ltd. said: “Since RCEP came into effect, the tariff rate on export products has been reduced year by year, which has greatly reduced the procurement costs of overseas customers and effectively compressed our production and operation costs, making our products more competitive in the international market.”
Next step.
Zhaoqing Customs will continue to tap into the potential of RCEP policies, continue to optimize origin service measures, expand policy publicity coverage, accurately meet the development needs of enterprises, continue to release the superimposed effect of free trade agreement policies, help enterprises in the jurisdiction to deeply explore the markets of RCEP member countries, expand new international trade space, and fully promote the quality and efficiency of Zhaoqing’s foreign trade economy, and stable and positive development.
