The Shanghai municipal commission of commerce recently released its Work Procedures for Trade Facilitation, clearly spelling out the duties of member units of the Joint Committee for Trade Facilitation. The departments concerned have worked out 13 indicators for service management, efficiency and cost for assessing the facilitation of import-export trade.

The newly promulgated Work Procedures for Trade Facilitation (the Procedures) make specific provisions for the establishment of a joint committee for trade facilitation made up of nine departments, including the municipal commission of commerce, development and reform commission, state taxation bureau, local taxation bureau, port office, industry and commerce administration bureau, entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureau, and the Shanghai branch of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, with the municipal commission of commerce taking the lead in promoting trade facilitation.

Released at the same time were a set of duties for members of the Joint Committee for Trade Facilitation and a framework of indicators for trade facilitation. The purpose of formulating the Procedures is to “better serve the vast numbers of enterprises in their import-export business and further raise the level of trade facilitation”. The framework, meanwhile, has perfected the system of trade facilitation indicators for the assessment of work efficiency. The framework is applicable to trade in import-export goods. It is mainly divided into three categories and includes nine service management indicators, three efficiency indicators and one cost indicator, totalling 13.

This set of indicators is arranged in the order trade is conducted. For example, in the pre-trade stage, Customs must complete the examination and approval of applications submitted by enterprises to register as self-declaration units within seven working days and issue registration certificates if all the materials are duly submitted. In the trading stage, enterprises shall be issued export licence within three working days under normal circumstances. In the stage of export verification after trading, on-site verification shall be arranged for the majority of enterprises. For a small number of enterprises which have submitted plenty of customs declarations, making it impossible to process the verification and cancellation on-site, an appointment may be made and the task can be completed in three days under normal circumstances. As for export rebates, the whole process from formal application to examination of documents, computer verification and approval must be completed in no more than 20 working days.

Furthermore, the share of the administrative charges collected by import-export administration units in the total annual import-export business handled will be taken as one of the performance indicators.