Promulgation Authorities:  General Administration of Customs

Promulgation Date:  2022.09.20

Effective Date:  2022.12.01

Validity Status:  valid

Document Number:  Decree No.259 of the General Administration of Customs

Administrative Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Adoption of Inspection Results for Import and Export Commodities

Administrative Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Adoption of Inspection Results for Import and Export Commodities

Decree No.259 of the General Administration of Customs

(Promulgated under Decree No.259 of the General Administration of Customs on September 20, 2022, and effective December 1, 2022)

Chapter 1 General Principles

Article 1    These Measures are enacted in accordance with the provisions of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Import and Export Commodity Inspection and the implementing rules thereof for the purpose of regulating customs offices' adoption of inspection results for import and export commodities.

Article 2    These Measures shall apply to customs offices' adoption of inspection results made by inspection agencies for import and export commodities and the supervision and administration over recognized inspection agencies.

Article 3    The General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China ("GACC") shall be in charge of the adoption of inspection results for import and export commodities.

The customs offices directly subordinated or affiliated to the GACC shall adopt inspection results for import and export commodities in accordance with the law.

Article 4    For the purpose of these Measures, the term "adoption of inspection results" refers to the act that customs offices, in the inspection of import and export commodities, takes the inspection results made by recognized inspection agencies as the basis for conformity assessment in accordance with the law.

For the purpose of these Measures, the term "recognized inspection agencies" refers to inspection agencies that have the qualifications and capabilities required by the Customs offices and are included by the GACC in the catalogue of recognized inspection agencies.

Article 5    The GACC shall, based on the results of risk assessment of the quality and safety of import and export commodities, determine and publicize the scope of commodities entitled to the method of adoption of inspection results (hereinafter referred to as the "entitled commodities") and the specific adoption requirements, and make dynamic adjustments thereto.

The adoption requirements include: the name and serial number of the entitled commodities, the applicable technical specifications, inspection items, inspection methods, sampling plans, validity period of inspection reports and other requirements relating to the quality and safety of import and export commodities.

Article 6    The GAAC establishes a management system for adoption of inspection results to enhance the informatization level in this regard.

Chapter 2 Management of Recognized Inspection Agencies

Article 7    An inspection agency that meets the following conditions may apply to the GACC for being included in the directory of recognized inspection agencies:

(I) being qualified to operate in accordance with the law in the country or region where it is located;

(II) having the relevant inspection capability for the entitled commodities;

(III) in the case of an inspection agency registered within the territory of the People's Republic of China, it shall obtain the China Metrology Accreditation (CMA) for inspection and testing agencies and other corresponding domestic qualification certification, or the ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO/IEC 17020 accreditation carried out by the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS); in the case of an inspection agency registered outside the territory of the People's Republic of China, it shall obtain ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO/IEC 17020 system accreditation carried out by a signatory accreditation body for the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation Mutual Recognition Arrangement (ILAC-MRA);

(IV) being familiar with and abiding by the relevant laws, regulations and standards of the People's Republic of China relating to commodity inspection;

(V) having the ability to carry out inspection activities independently, impartially and objectively; and

(VI) there is no inspection related violation record at home and abroad in the recent three years.

If the GACC provides otherwise, such provisions shall prevail.

Article 8    To apply to be included in the directory of recognized inspection agencies, an inspection agency shall submit the following materials to the GACC via the adoption management system:

(I) application form;

(II) information of the legal person and investor(s) of the inspection agency;

(III) relevant qualification accreditation or accreditation certificate and relevant evidentiary materials;

(IV) a statement on technical capability scope, including the inspection scope of relevant qualifications, inspection methods and standards adopted;

(V) a statement on the independence of the inspection activities it is undertaking and other relevant evidentiary materials;

(VI) a statement on no record of violation of laws relevant to inspection at home and abroad in recent three years; and

(VII) the list of the issuers of commodity inspection reports.

If the relevant materials are written in a foreign language, a Chinese translation shall be accompanied therewith.

Article 9    The GACC shall organize an expert panel to assess and examine the application materials submitted by an inspection agency. The assessment and examination may be carried out in the form of, among others, written examination or on- site inspection.

Article 10    Where the provisions hereof are satisfied upon examination, the GACC shall include an inspection agency in the directory of recognized inspection agencies corresponding to the relevant entitled commodities; in case that the provisions hereof are not satisfied, the GACC shall inform the inspection agency of the non-conformity via the adoption management system.

Article 11    The GACC is responsible to make public the directory of recognized inspection agencies and make dynamic adjustments thereto.

The directory of recognized inspection agencies shall include: the names and serial numbers of the entitled commodities, applicable technical specifications, inspection items, names and codes of recognized inspection agencies, countries or regions where they are located and contact information.

Chapter 3 Implementation of Adoption

Article 12    A recognized inspection agency may be entrusted by a consignor or a consignee of imports or exports or the agent thereof to inspect the entitled commodities and issue an inspection report.

A recognized inspection agency may, as needed, subcontract part of the inspection items to other recognized inspection agencies upon the written consent of the entrusting party concerned. The recognized inspection agency undertaking the subcontracted items shall have the corresponding inspection capacity and shall not subcontract the items further.

Article 13    An inspection report issued by a recognized inspection agency shall, in addition to meeting the content requirements prescribed in the provisions on inspection and testing qualification, include the following particulars:

(I) the name and code of the recognized inspection agency;

(II) the serial number of the inspection report;

(III) commodity information, including the name, model and specifications, corresponding batch number or product serial number and other product traceability information of the commodities;

(IV) the inspection items, inspection methods and sampling plans specified in the adoption requirements;

(V) the name and contact information of the entrusting party;

(VI) the date of acceptance, the place of inspection, the inspection time and the date of issuance;

(VII) inspection results; and

(VIII) the signature of the issuer.

Where the recognized inspection agency believes that there are other circumstances that may have an impact on the inspection results, such circumstances may be indicated in the inspection report.

Where the recognized inspection agency has subcontracted part of the inspection items to other recognized inspection agencies for inspection, it shall also indicate the subcontracted inspection items and the names and codes of the recognized inspection agencies undertaking the subcontracted items in the inspection report.

Article 14    A recognized inspection agency shall, as entrusted by a consignor or a consignee of imports or exports or the agent thereof, submit an inspection report to the customs office concerned through the adoption management system prior to the declaration of the relevant imports or exports, unless otherwise stipulated in the adoption requirements; where the inspection report is not submitted within a stipulated period, the customs office will not adopt the inspection result.

Unless otherwise stipulated in the adoption requirements, during the validity period of an inspection report submitted, the imports or exports with the same specifications and model is not required to submit an inspection report repetitively.

Article 15    The consignor or the consignee of imports or exports or the agent thereof shall provide the customs office with the inspection report serial number and the code of the recognized inspection agency issuing the inspection report. The customs office shall examine the corresponding inspection report according to the adoption requirements. Where the inspection report satisfies the requirements, the inspection result will be adopted; otherwise, the inspection result will not be adopted.

Article 16    Where the customs office adopts the inspection results, the consignor or consignee of imports or exports or the agent thereof shall submit a declaration of quality and safety compliance to the customs office, and the customs office will no longer conduct sampling inspection of imports or exports, except in the case of inspection carried out by the customs office in light of risk prevention and control needs.

Chapter 4 Supervision and Administration

Article 17    Where there is any change in the information of a recognized inspection agency, materials for information change shall be submitted to the GACC through the adoption management system in a timely manner.

Article 18    A recognized inspection agency shall keep the original documents relating to its activities of inspection recognized in accordance with the following provisions:

(I) the application materials provided for in Article 8 hereof shall be kept for a long time;

(II) the inspection reports and inspection records relating to the business of inspection recognized shall be kept for not less than six years; and

(III) the internal documents of the recognized inspection agency, including but not limited to instructions, standards, manuals, guidelines and reference data, shall be kept for not less than six years.

Article 19    Customs offices may supervise the recognized inspection agencies in the following ways:

(I) verifying the inspection capacity of the recognized inspection agencies;

(II) consulting or requiring the recognized inspection agencies to submit the relevant materials in accordance with the law; and

(III) carrying out on- site inspection or special investigation.

Where a customs office supervises a recognized inspection agency in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the recognized inspection agency shall submit the relevant materials to the customs office within the time limit prescribed by the customs office. If the relevant materials are in a foreign language, a Chinese translation shall be attached.

Article 20    Where a customs office directly subordinated or affiliated to the GACC finds that an inspection report issued by a recognized inspection agency is untrue or false, it shall forthwith report the same to the GACC.

The GACC may decide to suspend the acceptance of the inspection reports issued by the relevant agencies and take other necessary measures.

Article 21    Where a recognized inspection agency intends to remove itself from the directory of recognized inspection agencies voluntarily, it shall file an application through the adoption management system.

Article 22    The GACC may remove a recognized inspection agency from the directory of recognized inspection agencies if the recognized inspection agency voluntarily applies for removal from the directory of recognized inspection agencies or falls under any of the following circumstances:

(I) issuing untrue or false inspection reports;

(II) providing the customs office with inspection reports that are beyond the commodity scope specified in the directory of recognized inspection agencies;

(III) its inspection capacity fails to meet the requirements of the customs office;

(IV) refusing to cooperate with the customs office in supervision and administration, which is under serious circumstances; and

(V) other circumstances under which the conditions for recognized inspection agencies are not met.

From the date of removal from the directory and promulgation, the customs office will no longer adopt any inspection result issued by the said inspection agency.

An inspection agency that has been removed from the directory of recognized inspection agencies by the GACC shall not re-apply to be a recognized inspection agency within one year.

Where a recognized inspection agency falls under the circumstances stipulated in item (I) or item (II) of the first paragraph of this Article, the GACC may notify the relevant authorities at home and abroad of the relevant information.

Article 23    Where an inspection agency has been removed from the directory of recognized inspection agencies in accordance with the law, the customs office may, in light of work needs, conduct a retrospective investigation into the inspection activities conducted by the inspection agency prior to its removal.

Article 24    Where a recognized inspection agency registered within the territory of the People's Republic of China falls under any of the circumstances stipulated in item (I) or item (II) of the first paragraph of Article 22 hereof, the customs office shall impose administrative punishment on it pursuant to the law; where the case constitutes a criminal offence, criminal liability shall be pursued in accordance with the law.

Article 25    Where a consignor or a consignee of imports or exports or the agent thereof violates the provisions of these Measures, the Customs office shall impose administrative punishment on it pursuant to the law; where the case constitutes a criminal offence, criminal liability shall be pursued in accordance with the law.

Chapter 5 Supplemental Provisions

Article 26    Inspection agencies registered in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan region of the People's Republic of China shall be subject mutatis mutandis to the provisions of these Measures governing inspection agencies registered outside the territory of the People's Republic of China.

Article 27    These Measures shall be interpreted by the GACC.

Article 28    These Measures shall come into force on 1 December 2022.