BEIJING: The year 2014 is the fourth year since the entering into effect of the Early Harvest Program under ECFA (Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement). In this year, Qingdao port witnessed the import of RMB964 million worth of goods under ECFA with RMB83.255 million worth of preferential duties granted, a year-on-year increase of 11% and 4% respectively.
In Qingdao City, enterprises in the industries of machinery, textile, chemical and plastic are the major ones that can reap benefits from ECFA. But more and more enterprises are exposed to the convenience brought by the agreement, as the preferential polices are being popularized and promoted with force. “The clearance of the ECFA goods is fast and easy and the zero-tariff policy will help reduce operational cost. Enterprises are enthusiastic about importing under ECFA. Our company has got orders for Customs brokerage services from lots of enterprises”, said Liu Jian, a manager of Bondex Logistics Co., Ltd.
Qingdao Customs District has made a special effort to support Taiwan-related trade and make things easier for import and export enterprises. Customs officers have tried hard to implement in a down-to-earth way the clearance facilitation policies and create an efficient clearance environment, for example, a declaration desk has been set up to receive declarations of ECFA goods and take care of the clearance formalities, special hotlines have been opened and coordination officers have been designated for the in-time handling of the clearance-related issues and encouragements have been given to the enterprises to use the pre-classification scheme to make clearance a faster one.
