Commerce Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality and Shenzhen Customs District P.R.China Issue Support Measures for AEO Enterprises

On January 20, the Commerce Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality and Shenzhen Customs District P.R.China issued the Notice on Printing and Distributing Several Measures of Shenzhen Municipality on Further Promoting the High-Quality Development of Customs Advanced Certified Enterprises (AEO) (the “Measures”), which took effect immediately.

The Measures propose 23 initiatives across five aspects: cultivation and certification, customs clearance and ports, finance and taxation, market innovation, and support services.

- Establishment of a key cultivation and recommendation database as well as AEO practical training bases and online training;

- In customs clearance, granting priority processing, lower inspection ratios, priority testing/pre-judgment, extension of the active disclosure policy period, and prioritization for inclusion in innovation systems such as free trade zones and pilots like “Bonded + ERP”;

- In finance and taxation, priority management as category-one export enterprises, reducing export tax refund (exemption) processing time to within three working days, favoring insurance quota limits and green claims;

- In finance, encouraging development of exclusive credit and international settlement services, and support for Qianhai FT accounts and “single window” settlements;

- Additionally, strengthening integration of domestic and foreign trade at exhibitions, intellectual property customs protection filing, establishing customs-territory credit sharing and joint coordination, overseas investment services, APEC card and convenience for foreign talents and maritime administration.