June 6th 2014 - Source: DHL E-Newsletter
(re-edited by SCCC for web)
New Customs Rules Pertaining to the FTA (Swiss Confederation – P.R. China)
On the 1st of July 2014, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between The Swiss Confederation
and the People’s Republic of China will come into effect. Therefore we would like to
inform you about the latest news regarding this topic which may be important for your
business.
The Swiss Customs Administration has now published the circular, detailing the
application of the new customs rules pertaining to the FTA and can be downloaded from
their website in French German and Italian Language under following links:
Freihandelsabkommen mit China
Accord de libre-échange avec la Chine
Accordo di libero scambio con la Cina
All the following information has been retrieved from the official online publications of
the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO and the Swiss Customs Administration.
DHL assumes no liability for the given information for being complete, correct and/or upto-date.
An integral part of the FTA is the preferential treatment of goods, meaning the reduction
or suspension of import customs duties for commodities originating in Switzerland and
China respectively.
In order to qualify for reduced or suspended duties, one of the two following evidences of
origin need to be submitted to the customs authorities of the importing country:
1. Certificate of Origin
Export (Switzerland to China)
The movement certificate EUR.1, issued by the Exporter and approved by the Swiss
Customs Administration has been chosen as Certificate of Origin. A specimen of the
certificate can be downloaded from the SECO website via the following link: “Appendix 2
to Annex III - Certificate of Origin Switzerland.pdf”
Import (China to Switzerland)
The currently used GSP Form A will not be valid after the 30th of June 2014 and only the
new Certificate of Origin, issued in China shall be used. A specimen of the certificate can
be downloaded from the SECO website via the following link: “Appendix 1 to Annex III Certificate of Origin China.pdf”
Due to the particularities in this new Free Trade Agreement the Swiss Customs
Administration has communicated that for temporary customs entries executed between
the 1st of July 2014 until the 31st of December 2014, they will grant the importer a period
of 6 months to submit the proper Certificate of Origin. Details can be found under point 5
of the above mentioned circular.
2. Declaration of Origin, printed on the commercial invoice
Export (Switzerland to China)
Only applicable for Approved Exporters, as a sentence on the commercial invoices with
the additional requirement of an electronic transmission of the Declaration of Origin via
an online application.
Self-registration for this online application is possible as per 16th of June 2014 and log-ins
from the 1st of July 2014 onwards. Additional information is published on the website of
the Swiss Customs Administration (only in French, German and Italian language) under the
following links:
EA Datenaustausch mit China (EACN)
Echange de données EA avec la Chine (EACN)
Scambio di dati EA con la Cina (EACN)
A specimen of the wording for the Declaration of Origin can be downloaded from the
SECO website via the following link: “Annex IV Origin Declaration.pdf”
Import (China to Switzerland)
It is currently not known which exporters will be qualified as Approved Exporters and how
the General Administration of Customs of China will handle them.
We recommend that you bring this topic to the attention of your Chinese business
partners, as they may not yet be aware of the fact that the new regulations will start to be
applied within only little more than a month.
Links:
SECO Free Trade Agreements – China
SECO - Texts of the Agreements
Swiss Customs Administration – Free Trade Agreements, origin
We continue to monitor the official publications and will give you further updates as soon
as we receive more information.
Please always contact your local DHL Global Forwarding office for your bookings to and
from China.
DHL Logistics (Switzerland) Ltd.
DHL Global Forwarding
www.dhl.com