The government has strengthened supervision of cross-border e-commerce, and many people predict that this change will benefit direct mail. However, the direction of the policy is clear, with a two-pronged approach to simultaneously strengthen prevention and combat against “gray overseas shopping”. The State Council issued the “2016 Action Plan for Implementing the Outline of Quality Development”, which clearly stated that “strengthen the supervision of postal and express delivery channels in cross-border online transactions, and severely crack down on smuggling that uses e-commerce platforms and postal and express delivery channels in cross-border e-commerce.” Illegal activities and illegal activities of importing and exporting infringing and counterfeit goods through “Ant Moving” and other methods.”
The core point is to hope that practitioners will go through formal cross-border “three orders and one-on-one” customs clearance. The “customs offset and tax package” provided by the forwarding company is based on the probability of customs random inspection of individual packages, or deliberately underreporting when declaring customs. When the policy is loose, you can pass it, but when the policy is strict, it will be detained and repaid. This type of unconventional customs clearance method will not be discussed much.
Hong Kong, China is a good place. As a free trade port, adjacent to Shenzhen, except for a few items such as cigarettes and alcohol, most goods entering Hong Kong are not taxed. The prices of many goods such as electronic products and milk powder are cheaper than those in the mainland, so there are “port transfers” and The professional “water customers” travel between Hong Kong and the mainland of China to purchase and transport meat, earning price differences or wages, and even forming a tax avoidance industry.
If the “human flesh purchasing agent” exceeds the limit, you must pay import tax. If you deliberately evade the tax and fail to pay it, it may constitute smuggling. The smuggled goods are so-called parallel imports. There are also channels for smuggling through through trains and other methods. The whole truckload of packages is brought from Hong Kong, China, and the tax is paid directly. The operation is unclear and the risk is high.
In the ten years since the implementation of the “Free Travel to Hong Kong and Macao” policy, shopping consumption by mainland tourists in Hong Kong has increased by 5.3 times. In 2013, shopping consumption by mainland tourists supported one-third of the retail industry in Hong Kong, China. “One visa, multiple entries” and the self-service customs clearance E channel allow water passengers to travel between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, China, many times, exacerbating the proliferation of smuggling.
Shuike “breaks the goods into parts” and brings the private goods into the country, and then “breaks the parts into parts” in the country, repackages them and sells them for profit. For a time, the milk powder in major supermarkets and convenience stores in Hong Kong was frequently raided and dumped by “Shike Group”, resulting in a supply shortage, which seriously affected the normal consumption of local residents, and finally forced Hong Kong to restrict purchases.
To this day, there are still many importers who first transport goods in bulk to Hong Kong, China, by sea freight and other methods. For example, they purchase international brand-name luxury goods from all over the world, then transport them into customs through various channels, and finally ship them to luxury goods in the Mainland. Sales through stores or e-commerce channels. Today, the popularity of tourism in Hong Kong, China, has declined, and many physical stores have suffered serious declines. However, the phenomenon of “parallel importers” shows that there is huge demand for domestic overseas shopping and cross-border logistics, and there are still huge opportunities for online sales here.
Legal channels may not be timely enough, or the cost may be high. If formal customs declaration and tax payment are made, many products will need to pay more than 40% tax, and the registration and commodity inspection process for food, milk powder and cosmetics is very long. Some importers take desperate measures and smuggle large quantities of goods into the country underground. This is not only a serious violation of the law, but also the phenomenon of illicit smuggling of goods. Without legitimacy there is no security, and without security there is nothing. Therefore, what importers can really do is to make the most of the local policy dividends in a compliant manner based on the slightly different policies of each port.