Guide to Air-Land Coordinated Transport Declaration of Guangzhou Customs

Guangzhou Customs has worked out Twelve Service Measures to support Guangzhou new Baiyun International Airport to become the air pivot of South China to connect the world based on the principles of "Clients are the basis and Customs shall build a convenient environment for law-biding and smooth Customs clearance". Guangzhou Customs now are building a favorable environment for clearance and providing the best services to speed up Customs clearance and promote the operational efficiency of the airport in the round. Among the twelve measures, the fifth measure is: the customs simplifies the formalities and facilitates the trade for goods of air-land-air mode and speeds up the circulation of the goods between Guangzhou and Hong Kong airports or Guangzhou and Macau airports to make the most of the aero resource. In specific, the customs treats the air-land-air goods through land transportation with a reference to air cargo.

In order to make the enterprises understand the convenient measure better, our Customs formulates this guide to offer help to the enterprises when going through the relevant formalities.

Ⅰ What is "Air-Land Coordinated Transport"? What advantages does it have when compared with the actual transit?

Air-Land Coordinated Transport refers to the model that the import goods are transited to the destination by land after arriving at the airport in China Customs territory from other territories by air or that export goods are transited outward by air after arriving at the airport by landway transit from the place of departure.

At present, there are two main methods of air-land coordinated transport between Guangzhou and Hong Kong/Macao. First, when setting out overseas, Guangzhou Baiyun Airport or other mainland airports have been fixed as the destination of the goods. After the plane arrives at Hong Kong airport or Macao airport, the goods will be carried to the Mainland by motor vehicles through Huanggang Port/ Gongbei Port and the clearance will be made in the Customs of Baiyun Airport or the goods will continue to be transited to backland. Second, Airline Company sells the air waybill in Hong Kong or Macao to undertake the bulk cargo to Guangzhou or backland from Hong Kong Airport or Macao Airport. The bulk cargo will be transited to Baiyun Airport for Customs clearance or continue to be transited to backland by plane.

Customs shall exercise supervision and control over the above air-land coordinated transport (the difference from land transit is that: for coordinated transport goods, the owner of the goods or the agent need not go to the airport to go through the formalities for goods picking-up and transition since the air transport company will do such things for them) goods. The air cargo shall be dealt with according to air joint-journey after they are loaded onto the cargo truck attached with the air waybill. Customs shall examine and verify such documents as air waybill only to release the cargo truck when the cargo truck enters or leaves the airports between Guangzhou and Hong Kong or Guangzhou and Macao or when the formalities are gone through for quadratic transit. The Customs formalities for import or export goods shall be gone through in a lump when the goods are transported into or out from the airport.

Ⅱ What is the importing or exporting process of the air-land coordinated transport goods?

For better understanding, the flow chart of air-land coordinated transport is made as follows:

Ⅲ How do the import/export formalities of air-land coordinated transport goods go through?

ⅰ Import:

1. Goods entering the territory

Carrier (air transport company or the entrusted vehicle transport enterprise) shall fill in the Backland Customs & Hong Kong Customs Landway Import/Export Manifest (from and to Hong Kong) or Import/Export Manifest of the People's Republic of China (from and to Macao) (hereinafter Manifest will be called for short) to declare to land port Customs with the hold of the air joint-journey waybill, list of the air cargo and other required papers and documents.

The port Customs shall deal with the formalities for direct transit. The owner of the goods or the agent need not go through the declaration formalities at the designated Customs in advance.

The driver of motor vehicle shall insert the IC card at the Customs barrier when leaving the landway port. The barrier will automatically collect the weight data of the platform balance.

2. The motor vehicle arriving at the Baiyun Airport supervision warehouse area
The drive of motor vehicle shall insert the IC card at the Customs barrier when driving into the airport warehouse area. The Customs barrier system will automatically collect the weight data of the platform balance to check against the weight data from the port.

Carrier shall submit the Manifest and the attached papers and documents to the Customs. Customs shall deal with the formalities to cancel the record after verification for the means of transport.

3. Transiting

Carrier shall declare to Customs for the "quadratic transit" formalities basing on the joint-journey waybill when the goods will be transited to backland.Airport Customs shall confirm the electronic data of waybill recorded by the airline company.

4. Transshipping

Carrier shall declare to Customs for transshipping goods basing on the joint-journey waybill when the goods will be transshipped to airports out of the territory.

ⅱ Export:

1. Backland airport

The owner of the goods or the agent shall declare to Customs at the backland airport. Backland Customs shall affix the seal with the joint-journey waybill when the coordinated transport goods are transported to Guangzhou Baiyun Airport by air quadratic transit.

2. Baiyun Airport supervision warehouse area

When the goods are transported to the Baiyun Airport, the airline company shall submit the Customs seal to Baiyun Airport Customs for the formalities of cancelling the record after verification, and the goods shall be unloaded to the supervision warehouse area.

3. Landway transiting

Carrier shall record the Export Manifest and provide the relevant papers and books to Customs for the formalities of landway export transit.
The goods shall be loaded onto the motor vehicle in Baiyun Airport supervision warehouse area. When the motor vehicle leave the Customs barrier, the barrier will automatically collect the weight data of the platform balance and send the data to the Customs at the place of departure.

4. Exiting the territory

The Customs at the place of departure will check the accordance between the Manifest and the transit data and the data sent by the Customs barrier for the export formalities of cancelling the record after verification.

After the goods exiting the territory, the Customs at the place of departure shall send the return receipt to the Customs at the place where the goods set out and Baiyun Airport Customs. Backland Customs shall endorse the copy of drawback of declaration form to the owner of the goods or the agent.

Compared with the actual transfer method, the advantages of the air-land coordinated transport are as follows: except for the Manifest of the landway transport, Customs are entitled to deal with the formalities of the section of the air-land coordinated transport which is in China Customs territory (including air-express transit among the backland airports and landway transfer inside Guangdong area) basing on the joint-journey waybill and list of the air goods only other than affix the seal of paper transit declaration form and deal with procedures of examination and verification.

Furthermore, air-land coordinated transport adopts the latest barrier joint-net system to resolve the problem that the Customs cannot be cleared normally with the declaration forms because the weight data of the platform balance from the Customs at two places cannot exchang with each other. We believe that we will provide the goods striding over the airports in Hong Kong, Macao and backland with the convenient customs clearance service to conquer the disadvantages of slow speed and high cost of the goods transited to backland because of the lack of flights from Hong Kong or Macao to backland. Consequently, the circulation of the goods will speed up to the maximum and the cost of the transport will be reduced to the minimum so that more commercial opportunities can be brought to numerous enterprises