Beijing Customs has streamlined customs clearance protocols, allowing imported seafood to be served at dinner table the very same day it arrives at the airport. 

With this streamlined clearance, Beijing residents are able to enjoy fresh seafood imported from other countries. For instance, a lobster on a plane taking off from Australia could arrive at Beijing International Airport in the morning and be served at noon. 

Imported live seafood is found in Beijing's fresh supermarkets more frequently, such as Australian lobster, British brown crab, and Russian king crab.

"The faster the customs clearance, the higher survival rate the imported seafood will have, and the sooner they will appear on the dinner table," said Mr. Gao, a manager of shipping company Beijing Huayi International Freight Forwarding.

In the past, it took four to five hours to complete the customs clearance procedures after the landing of the plane. Now it takes only two hours. Then, the seafood is immediately sent to various fresh supermarkets and can be served on the table within half a day, Gao said.

Since last year, along with institutional reforms and customs clearance facilitation, the import declaration process has been streamlined dramatically.

"In the past, the customs declaration and inspection procedures for a cargo normally began after the landing of the plane, and a paper customs clearance form wasn't issued until the inspection was done," Gao said. "The form must be printed, signed, stamped and verified before the importing enterprise was able to obtain it. Only with the paper customs clearance form in hand could the importer report the tally information to the customs."

Previously, these procedures had to be done face to face with the customs officers, resulting in relatively high cost in time and personnel. Last year, with the institutional reform, Beijing Customs initiated the paperless office, enabling handling of customs clearance procedures in advance. Today, once the goods have taken off from abroad, a company can upload documents online to pre-declare the goods. When the goods arrive on site, they will either be automatically released, or the importing company will receive inspection notification.

Speaking of the inspection, Gao said he still remembers that fresh products were checked together with ordinary goods. Due to the large number of goods, there were occasions when cargoes had to wait for inspection. In order to improve the customs clearance speed of fresh products, Beijing Customs has set up a separate department to inspect fresh products. "As long as the goods are moved to the inspection center, they will be checked immediately. So, there is basically no such waiting," Gao said. 

Customs statistics show that in the first week of March, the overall customs clearance time for imported goods at Beijing Customs was reduced by 47.33 percent from 2017, and the time for export goods was 41.72 percent shorter than in 2017.

With the streamlining of customs clearance, Beijing's trade has maintained a steady growth. According to the latest statistics, Beijing's import and export in January totaled 239.7 billion yuan (about US$35 billion), a year-on-year increase of 10.8 percent, and an increase of 4.4 percent over the previous month.

This year, Beijing Customs will further improve clearance protocols. At the beginning of the year, it launched 27 convenience measures such as cutting down the number of required documents and simplifying the handling of documents. The department has also launched a three-month campaign from January to March to facilitate cross-border trade.

In addition to transportation by air, many imported goods also come to Beijing by sea. Since last year, the business and customs departments of Beijing and Tianjin have jointly launched a series of new initiatives to promote cross-border trade, and thus further facilitate cross-border trade of seaborne imports and exports. This year, Beijing Customs and Tianjin Customs have jointly formulated a plan for cross-border trade facilitation in 2019, so as to achieve consistency in customs clearance management and joint disposal, and benefit more companies.

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