Customs Officers Study Visit to China

In the context of the EU-China Action Plan (2014-2017) on IPR Customs Enforcement of IPR, IP Key organised a study visit of two customs officers from European member states to China from May 25 to 29, 2015. After the two working group meetings respectively held in Ningbo, China (May 6 to 9, 2014) and Rome, Italy (November 25 to 27, 2014), this visit aims at contributing to the Key Action 5 (KA5) – Exchange of knowledge and experience of each other’s IPR enforcement policies and practices – as set out by the aforementioned Action Plan. 

The customs officers, from the Netherlands and the UK, exchanged experiences and best practices, focusing on the customs export declaration system in China, with Shanghai and Ningbo customs authorities. The experts also visited Pujiang Customs and Pudong International Airport Customs in Shanghai, as well as Beilun Customs, Daxie Customs and Bonded Zone Customs in Ningbo for “on-the-job” exchanges on the customs declaration procedures for sea freight, air freight and express courier. 

The study visit mainly addressed the following specific points:

• China’s export declaration system 
• Customs clearance procedures 
• Risk management system, including risk analysis, monitoring and control actions 

This visit highly contributed to a better understanding of China export declaration system by the EU experts. Insights into the China customs risk analysis, monitoring and control systems should facilitate the identification of IPR infringing consignments and possible risk mitigation approaches.

For more information on this activity, please contact Isabelle De Stobbeleir at Isabelle.DE-STOBBELEIR@ec.europa.eu. 

For general information on IP Key please contact Jaspal Channa at jaspal.channa@ipkey.org.