After integrating the planning content of the online free trade zone, Hangzhou’s cross-border e-commerce pilot was upgraded to a national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone. So, as a pilot in the pilot, what is the difference between the Hangzhou comprehensive pilot zone?
In short, the core of the comprehensive pilot zone is “six systems and two platforms”. The “six systems” include information sharing system, financial service system, intelligent logistics system, e-commerce credit system, statistical monitoring system and risk prevention and control system, and the “two platforms” refer to the online “single window” platform and the offline “comprehensive park platform”. It can be said that this is an upgraded version of the eight tasks in the previous pilot plan.
In the “six systems”, there are both business services such as finance and logistics, and government services such as information sharing and statistical monitoring. For example, the comprehensive pilot zone connects with logistics companies to provide online visual logistics tracking services for e-commerce companies; for another example, through the information sharing system, the main body of the enterprise in the market economy activities only needs to connect with the comprehensive pilot zone, and the comprehensive pilot zone will then share the information with government departments such as customs, national inspection, national taxation, and foreign exchange control.
In the “two platforms”, the comprehensive pilot zone integrates online and offline. Enterprises can complete customs clearance, information query and other tasks through the online single window platform, and can also settle in offline industrial parks to obtain more specific services such as talent training, warehousing and logistics. On June 1, 2015, the “single window” platform (www.singlewindow.gov.cn) of the comprehensive pilot zone was put into test operation, and the service objects include e-commerce enterprises, logistics enterprises, warehousing enterprises, payment enterprises and comprehensive service enterprises. Obviously, the function of this single window platform is much more powerful than the cross-border e-commerce service platforms in other cities. As for offline parks, Hangzhou can be said to be blooming everywhere. As of December 2015, Hangzhou Comprehensive Pilot Zone has 8 industrial parks, including Xiacheng, Xiasha, Airport, Lin’an, Jianggan, Xiaoshan, Yuhang, and Postal Express.
Relying on the “six systems and two platforms”, the Hangzhou Comprehensive Pilot Zone is exploring a different cross-border e-commerce path from other pilot cities. As of the end of September 2015, the total import and export of cross-border e-commerce goods in the comprehensive pilot zone amounted to 2.877 billion yuan, of which 1.49 billion yuan was bonded import, 257 million yuan was direct mail import, and 1.13 billion yuan was exported2. In the future, the comprehensive pilot zone will mainly promote cross-border e-commerce B2B exports. It can be foreseen that the customs clearance volume of Hangzhou’s cross-border e-commerce will rapidly increase in the future.
Of course, customs clearance volume is not the focus of the comprehensive pilot zone, but the establishment of a set of scalable and replicable systems is. In terms of customs, the “Customs Supervision Plan for China (Hangzhou) Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone” approved by the General Administration of Customs was announced in October 2015. This plan can be said to be a refinement of the General Administration’s Document No. 56 in 2014. It not only distinguishes imports from exports, B2B from B2C, but also upgrades the supervision model from the original “list approval and release, summary declaration” to “list approval and release, centralized taxation, withholding and payment”. In terms of commodity inspection, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine formulated the “Opinions on Supporting the Development of China (Hangzhou) Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone” specifically for Hangzhou in July 2015. With the support of this document, Hangzhou simplified the health registration procedures for overseas food companies and the exemption process for compulsory product certification, implemented a list management system for import and export products, and established a national center for cross-border e-commerce commodity quality and safety risk monitoring. In terms of taxation, Hangzhou has strived for a policy of exemption from tax without invoices under certain conditions3, allowing export companies that have not obtained valid purchase certificates to enjoy the preferential treatment of exemption from value-added tax.