CHINA Country Profile

Customs Administration

Business Corruption

Global Integrity 2009 reports that customs and excise laws are not always enforced uniformly or without discrimination. Companies should know that corruption is widespread in the Chinese customs department. There are reports of companies paying bribes to custom officers in order to evade customs fees or pay less, as well as there have been cases where customs departments have been directly implicated in smuggling activities.

According to Sohu, the former head of the Xishuangbana Customs department was sentenced to 16 years in prison because of accepting more than CNY 700,000 in bribes from different companies, in return for allowing them to smuggle more than 1,000 tons of natural rubber into the country, causing a huge loss to the government. Read about the case details here (in Chinese).

Frequency

The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2010:
- For a standardised export shipment, 7 documents are needed, and the process takes an average of 21 days at an average cost of USD 500 per container.

- For a standardised import shipment, 5 documents are needed, and the process takes an average of 24 days at an average cost of USD 545 per container.

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010:
- Business executives give the efficiency of customs procedures (formalities regulating the entry and exit of merchandise) in China a score of 4.6 on a 7-point scale (1 being 'extremely inefficient' and 7 'extremely efficient').