The General Administration of Customs ("GAC") has recently issued the Announcement [2018] No.164 to clarify matters concerning initiating the use of the information management system for inward and outward postal items. This announcement will take effect from November 30, 2018.
The announcement clarifies three matters as follows. First, the headquarter-to-headquarter link established between the GAC and the China Post Group Corporation will make it possible to transmit information on postal items between nationwide interconnection networks. Second, postal enterprises are responsible for collecting electronic data about waybills of postal items and transmitting the same into the customs information system. Information that should be collected from such waybills include names of the sender and the recipient of each parcel, sending and receiving countries (regions) and detailed addresses, and names, quantity, weight and prices (with the currency specified) of items in the parcel. 3. Owners of inward and outward postal items shall undertake the responsibility of declaring such items. Specifically, outward parcel senders are subjects responsible for such declaration; for an inward parcel, the declaration shall be based on information provided by the sender on the waybill, and the domestic recipient of such inward parcel may provide additional information about this parcel for the declaration and shall be liable for the truthfulness of the additional information he or she provides. Moreover, the announcement requires that postal enterprises shall transmit to the customs relevant electronic data, including waybills of postal dispatches, while handling procedures for the entry, exit and customs transit of postal dispatches.