The General Administration of Customs ("GAC") has recently issued the Announcement [2018] No.131 to provide the standard on how to complete the Item "Authorized Economic Operator Code" which will take effect from November 1, 2018.
The announcement contains provisions in two aspects. First, where an overseas consigner or consignee is an authorized economic operator (AEO) in a country (region) where the local customs has formed the mutual recognition mechanism for AEOs with the Chinese customs, the relevant domestic enterprise shall provide the AEO code of this overseas consigner or consignee, in the Item "AEO Code of the Consignee" and the Item "AEO Code of the Consigner" on the Data Items on the Original Manifest or the Data Items on the Advance Manifest affiliated to the water or air freight transport manifest, and in the Item "Overseas Consignee/Consignor" on the Declaration of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for Imported (Exported) Goods; however, if the overseas consigner or consignee is not an AEO mutually recognized by an overseas country (region) and China, such domestic enterprise does not have to provide the AEO code in the abovesaid items. Second, an AEO code comprises the "country (region) code plus the enterprise code assigned by the customs".