Therefore, Qianhai’s joining the ecommerce pilot programme enables domestic customers to shop on foreign websites and have their order shipped home under the customs supervision, caixin.com also reports.
Besides Shengzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Ningbo, Chongqing and Guangzhou have also joined the ecommerce pilot.
The program, which started in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone in 2013, aims to bring order to the fast-growing but largely unsupervised cross-border ecommerce market. The field has been dominated by forwarding companies and travelers delivering small items across borders.
TJ198 Network Technology (HK) was the first company to take advantage of the policy in Qianhai. It reported 98 orders worth a total of about USD 3261 (CNY 20,000) on the first day and was levied USD 72 (CNY 448.5) in custom duties on those transactions. The firm sells foreign-made nutritional supplements and milk powder on tmall.hk, an e-shopping arm of Alibaba Group.
Chen Qiao, TJ198s deputy general manager, has informed that as the company can stock imports in bonded areas, it has expedited the customs clearing process and cut operating costs.
Chen Weiming, vice director of Shekou Customs in Shenzhen, has claimed that Customs authorities will supervise and regulate the whole process.
The government intends to limit purchases through the pilot program to foreign consumer goods, he said. Orders are capped at USD 162 (CNY 1,000) to prevent people from buying for resale purposes.
The pilot program in Qianhai and other cities is an effort by the central government to regulate the cross-border, e-shopping industry.
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