The first nationwide application of the "Classification Management Measures for Food and Drug Substances" import business landing in Shandong

Recently, a batch of seasonings declared for import by Shandong Meiji Trading Co., Ltd. successfully completed customs clearance at the Zaozhuang Customs under Qingdao Customs and arrived at the largest spice distribution center in northern China - Shandong Tengzhou Dry Miscellaneous Marine Goods Market. This is the first batch of imported food and drug substances in China to be subject to classified management measures after the "Announcement of the General Administration of Customs, the National Health Commission, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the National Medical Products Administration on Pilot Implementation of Classification Management Measures for Imported Food and Drug Substances" came into effect on December 3.

Food and medicinal substances refer to substances that are traditionally both food and traditional Chinese medicine. Common seasonings such as fennel and nutmeg belong to food and medicinal substances. In order to promote the convenient customs clearance of food and drug substances for non medicinal purposes, this reform implements import classification supervision for 30 pilot commodities, and the import of non medicinal purposes no longer requires the provision of an "Import Drug Customs Clearance Form".

Before the implementation of the announcement, imported seasonings such as fennel were subject to drug supervision and required an "Import Drug Customs Clearance Form". However, as we are not a pharmaceutical production and operation enterprise, we cannot obtain a customs clearance form, which is time-consuming, laborious, and expensive to import. Zhang Li, the business leader of the company, introduced that this reform has completely solved the bottleneck of "Import Drug Customs Clearance Form". The process of importing similar products is better, the time is shorter, and the cost is lower. It is really convenient to handle all import procedures without leaving home.

The Tengzhou Dry and Miscellaneous Marine Goods Market has gathered over 3200 merchants and enterprises, with transactions covering more than 40 countries and regions. Multiple merchants in the market operate and sell food and pharmaceutical products. When it comes to this reform, Zhang Min, a representative of the Shandong Provincial People's Congress and market leader, is full of confidence: "The classified management measures enable enterprises to import high-quality spices more efficiently, which will further consolidate the market's hub position in the national supply chain

In fact, in response to the problem of importing food and medicine from the same source, as early as June 2024, Zaozhuang Customs innovatively implemented the reform of customs clearance facilitation for imported food and medicine products, breaking through the restrictions of pilot enterprise types and special supervision areas, allowing enterprises to use the "Certificate of Import Commodity Usage" instead of the "Import Drug Customs Clearance Form" to handle customs clearance procedures, and guiding enterprises to build and operate public bonded warehouses, achieving positive results. After the release of this reform announcement, Zaozhuang Customs immediately studied and implemented detailed measures, followed up on system rule optimization in a timely manner, communicated enterprise import plans in advance, and provided one-on-one lectures to help enterprises familiarize themselves with the process, ensuring the full release of reform dividends.

Next, Zaozhuang Customs will focus on the development needs of local characteristic industries, accurately implement measures to promote cross-border trade facilitation, strive to achieve more efficient customs clearance, more precise supervision, and higher quality services, and help Zaozhuang build a regional distribution center for imported food and drug substances, promoting high-quality development of local foreign trade. (Dong Lei, Gao Tian, Cai Xia/Wen)