China customs self-compliance pilot likely to extend into 2015

Program seeks to encourage voluntary disclosure of customs violations in exchange for reduced penalties, inspections.    A pilot program to study the efficacy of a customs self-disclosure program in China could be extended past the end of 2014, according to the trade law firm Mayer Brown.
   According to the firm, for the last year, China’s General Administration of Customs has been studying the feasibility of introducing a customs voluntary disclosure program. Since July, the GAC has been gradually implementing a pilot “enterprise self-discipline” program at selected regional customs offices, including Tianjin, Wuhan, Nanjing, Suzhou, Xiamen, and the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.
   The program is similar to voluntary disclosure programs in various developed countries, Mayer Brown said. It provides for more lenient treatment by customs for voluntarily reported non-compliance activities.
   “Although some customs offices announced that the current pilot program is only valid till end of this year, we believe that this pilot will lead to changes in legislation that will formalize the program,” the firm said. “It has also been proposed within customs to add voluntary disclosure when revising the Regulation on Customs Audit. We expect that a formal regulation on voluntary disclosure will be put on the GAC agenda sooner rather than later.”
   To benefit from the pilot program, shippers are encouraged to conduct their own internal compliance review to identify any non-compliance trade issues, investigate the reasons for the non-compliance and estimate the value of the potential exposure, and compile documentation to support their case. They would then submit a voluntarily report of the non-compliance to customs via a self-audit report.
   Advantages of self-reporting include lenient, mitigated or no administrative penalties; reduced or exempted late-payment surcharge for duty/value-added tax drawback; exemption of formal customs audit this or next year.