Chongqing- Recently, the Chinese consumer electronics and mobile communications company OPPO (Chongqing) Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd held one-to-one policy counseling to promote foreign trade by Lianglu Cuntan Customs, a subsidiary of Southwest China's Chongqing Customs District. 

"The lesson is really timely," said a company representative. "But we have more confidence to complete this year's foreign trade targets."

The one-to-one policy counseling mirrors the custom's efforts to optimize the business environment and boost cross-border trade. For a long time, Chongqing Customs District has carried out various preferential policies to boost the high-quality development of foreign trade enterprises with the four comprehensive bonded zones of Lianglu Cuntan, Xiyong, Jiangjin, and Fuling, which are special commercial areas with favorable taxation policies managed by customs officials. 

AEO Certificate

As the largest exporter of mobile phones and the first high-level certified enterprise newly added in Chongqing this year, Chongqing Xiaochuan Industrial Co., Ltd pointed to the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) certificate as playing a significant role in the credit rating upgrade.

The company's representative said that the AEO certificate is like a global "credit card" for foreign trade, bringing lower inspection rates and faster customs clearance. It effectively reduces transit time and warehousing costs, making the company more competitive internationally.

Now the enterprise can enjoy convenient customs clearance in mutually recognized countries and regions, including simplified customs clearance procedures, reduced inspection rates, trade disruptions, priority protection of senior certified enterprises through customs clearance, etc. 

The China AEO Certificate is a document held by companies in China engaged in import and export activities. Issued by China Customs, the certificate specifies the company's enterprise classification, which determines its level of inspections. Currently, 35 AEO enterprises lie in Lianglu Cuntan Customs area, accounting for 45% of Chongqing AEO enterprises. As of May 17, 78 AEO enterprises are recognized by Chongqing Customs District, ranking among the top in the southwest region. 

Save import tariffs under RCEP 

Since the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) implementation on January 1 this year, the customs has actively driven foreign trade enterprises to reap the policy's benefits. For example, Chongqing Runji Group, which focuses on new metal functional materials, exported manganese and iron supplements to many European countries. 

"Other RCEP member countries are important export markets for our company, and its export volume exceeded 300 million yuan last year," said the company head. "After RCEP came into effect, the export tariffs dropped from 4.4% to 2.8%."

He continued that from January to May, the company's application for issuing the RCEP certificate of origin is expected to save customers nearly 1 million yuan in import tariffs. This has positively impacted the company's further expansion in overseas markets.

(Wang Yuxuan, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)