The General Administration of Customs ("GAC") has recently issued the Administrative Provisions of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for Statistical Work (the "Provisions"), with effect from October 1, 2018.
The Provisions state that, the customs shall carry out statistical surveys for import and export trade, targeting goods entering or leaving the territory of China and increasing or decreasing the stock of domestic materials; specialized statistical surveys may be carried out for other goods under the customs supervision, depending on administrative needs; and statistical surveys for customs business will also be performed among customs' supervisory and administrative activities for inward and outward goods and its internal management affairs. Customs officers are obligated to keep confidential the state secrets and trade secrets they have had access to in the statistical surveys. In addition, the Provisions explicitly state that, customs' statistical surveys may be carried out among such targets as the consignees of imported goods and consigners of exported goods or agents thereof, related government agencies, industry associations and relevant enterprises. The customs shall make an analysis of statistics, do research into the operational characteristics, trends and regular pattern of foreign trade and customs business, and give the dynamic early warning. Furthermore, the Provisions stipulate that customs officers shall not falsify customs statistical materials or fabricate false data in person, or participate in such falsification or fabrication, or incite another party to do so.