General Administration of Customs ("GAC") and the State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR") have recently issued the Announcement [2019] No.14 to clarify matters concerning the inclusion of Customs Declaration Entity Registration Certificates (for Import Consignees and Export Consignors) into the coverage of the reform in "consolidating multiple certificates into one". This announcement will enter into force from February 1, 2019.

 According to the announcement, when an applicant handles the registration of the industry and commerce, it will be required to tick the "record-filing" option for import consignees and export consignors, if it needs to apply for the Customs Declaration Entity Registration Certificate (for Import Consignees and Export Consignors), and to provide additional information for the record-filing purpose. Further, the announcement provides that, market regulators will complete processing the registration under procedures for "consolidating multiple certificates into one", and exchange data, at the SAMR level, with the GAC. Record-filing will be considered completed once customs offices have confirmed their receipt of information regarding the industry and commerce registration of enterprises and business information filed under record, which means that enterprises will no longer have to carry out record-filing formalities with the customs.

(Source: GAC)