A special customs supervision area is a specific economic area approved by the State Council, with customs as the main body, and with closed supervision for processing and manufacturing, international trade, logistics distribution, bonded warehousing, testing and maintenance, R&D and design, and commodity display. It is divided into six categories: bonded areas, export processing zones, bonded logistics parks, cross-border industrial zones, bonded port areas, and comprehensive bonded areas.
Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Issuing a Plan to Accelerate the Integration and Optimization of Special Customs Supervision Areas (Guobanfa (2015) 66) requires that the existing export processing zones, bonded logistics parks, cross-border industrial zones, bonded port areas and qualified bonded areas be gradually integrated into comprehensive bonded areas, and the newly established special customs supervision areas be collectively named comprehensive bonded areas, and on this basis, further integrate functions, policies and management.
As of September 2022, there are 168 special customs supervision areas in the country.
Enterprises in comprehensive bonded areas can carry out the following businesses in accordance with the law:
①R&D, processing, manufacturing, and remanufacturing;
②Testing and maintenance;
③Cargo storage;
④Logistics distribution;
⑤Financial leasing;
⑥Commodity display;
⑦International entrepot trade;
⑧International transit;
⑨Port operations;
⑩Futures bonded delivery;
?Other businesses prescribed by the state.
Business that cannot be conducted: Goods prohibited from import and export by the state.
Articles restricted from entering the country include:
①Radio transceivers, communication security machines;
②Tobacco and alcohol;
③Endangered and precious animals and plants (including specimens) and their special seeds and breeding materials:
④National currency;
⑤Other items restricted from entering the country by the customs.
Articles restricted from leaving the country include:
①Gold, silver and other heavy metals and their products;
②National currency;
③Foreign currency and its securities;
④Radio transceivers, communication security machines;
⑤Precious Chinese medicinal materials;
⑥General cultural relics;
⑦Other items restricted from leaving the country by the customs.
For specific details, please refer to the “Administrative Measures for Comprehensive Bonded Areas of the Customs of the People’s Republic of China” (Order No. 256 of the General Administration of Customs).