A. General Information
GS1 GTIN in China Customs “Single Window”
B. Lessons Learned
By adopting international standard (GS1 GTIN) andassociated standardized product data, it helpsChina customs accurately and precisely identify the goods and realize smart goods supervision.
The amount of FMCG imports to China has grown exponentially, traditional customs clearance methods struggle to keep pace.Projected 30+ trillion (USD) of import goods to China in the next 15 years.
The initiative targets to address thechallenges faced by China Customs in the aspects of: 1. Difficulty in goods identification; 2. Coarse product information if only using HS; 3. Asymmetric information 4. Human resource pressure.
As of 2019 the GTIN (GS1 Global Trade Item Number / ISO 15459) is added as one of the compliant declaration elements in the China Customs “Single Window” Declaration Interface.
The identification code is included into the customs declaration submitted through single window system.
This is done to support smart goods identification and improve customs declaration efficiency. It is creatively transforming the granularity of managing imports and exports from “HS level” into “item level” by making advantage of GS1 GTIN and associated standardized product data. Importers and exporters can enjoy an intelligent auto-fill feature by using GTIN, which simplifies and speeds up the declaration process as well as improves accuracy.
Through the GS1 global cooperation of data sharing,China customs can accurately identify the imported goods and verify the integrity of product data through matching the GTIN product information from GS1 product catalogues with the GTIN declared by importers
Product identification code – which in turn gives access to associated product attributes in registries hosted in export countries
The added data attribute (GTIN/EAN/UPC), which is also the ISO 15459 standard, is the identification code applied, also known as Global Data Standards.
While the implementation is beneficial for GAC, offering additional product information for risk management purposes,the overall benefits to trade are still being identified and measured.
In addition, there is still language issue when sharing the GTIN associated product data to China customs’ system.
It can be very beneficial for customs organizations to explore the possibility to leverage readily available product identification codes, such as the GS1 GTIN (EAN, UPC), and associated product data which is held in databased in export markets.
It can help customs to accurately identify the imported goods through matching the GTIN information from GS1 product catalogues with the GTIN declared by importers
It will form the basis of the imported products catalogue in custom’s dedicated system
GTIN data can be used as an important source of indicative backfilled data for importers on customs declaration, improving the accuracy and efficiency of customs declaration
Source data helps to improve the predictability of the cross-border clearance process.
Currently the main focus of the initiative is on traditional trade; but the initiative is now also moving to cover cross-border e-commerce.