Regulations Governing Customs Clearance Procedures for Import/ Export Goods of the Authorized Traders
Regulations Governing Customs Clearance Procedures for Import/ Export Goods of the Authorized Traders
As amended on 6th July, 2009
*Where there are discrepancies between the English and Chinese versions of these Regulations, the latter shall prevail.
Article 1
These Regulations are enacted pursuant to paragraph 3 of Article 19 of the Customs Act (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”).
Article 2
The duty-payer or exporter entitled to apply to Customs for the status of an Authorized Trader shall:
(1) have been awarded a medal for excellent importer/exporter or a certificate of excellent trade performance by the Bureau of Foreign Trade (hereinafter referred to as “BOFT”), Ministry of Economic Affairs; or, have been engaging in business for more than three years, with an average annual trade performance of no less than USD1,4000,000 over the most recent three years;
(2) have no record of duty evasion, smuggling or other grave Customs offenses over the most recent three years;
(3) have set up a computerized system for operating and financial management; and
(4) have registered to Customs for carrying out online declarations, or have entrusted customs clearance to a customs broker who has processed online declarations with the customs.
Notwithstanding the three-year benchmark mentioned in subparagraph 2 of the preceding paragraph, Customs may, based on the compliance record available, confer the Authorized Trader status on a trader running business for less than three years, provided that trader has been awarded a medal for excellent importer/exporter or a certificate of excellent trade performance by the BOFT, Ministry of Economic Affairs
Article 3
The goods that an Authorized Traders declares may be:
(1) subject to lower examination rates;
(2) applicable to “brief examination” as prescribed in the Regulations Governing the Examination of Import/Export Goods on their imports selected for examination, or exempted from examination on their exports selected for examination; and
(3) released upon the provision of guarantees, with payment of duties and charges due on a monthly basis, except for deposit cases under the Article 18 of the Act.
Article 4
In addition to the preferences prescribed in the preceding paragraph, an Authorized Trader shall also be entitled to the application of providing an affidavit as the substitute of a guarantee of duty and charges to clear Customs, provided that:
(1) the Trader has been running a factory established pursuant to the Regulations Governing the Administration and Counselling of Manufacturers and other relevant regulations.
(2) the Trader has been running business for five years or more, with annual sales of NT500,000,000 or more over the most recent three years, or has been running a bonded factory, or a self-management enterprise in one of the Science Parks, Export Processing Zones, or Agricultural Technology Park for three years or more, with annual sales of NT300,000,000 or more over recent three years and has been graded as excellent by the Customs; and
(3) the Trader has an annual import/export performance of USD5,000,000 or more and no record of deficit in each of the most recent three years.
An Authorized Trader owns both bonded and non-bonded factories and operated in the same Tax Identification Number shall, before applying for the consolidated payment by an affidavit, meet the requirements prescribed in the first part of subparagraph 2, and subparagraph 1 and 3 of the preceding paragraph.
Article 5
Categories of import and export declaration forms applicable under these Regulations are as follows:
(1) Import declarations：including declaration for general import goods (G1), declaration for bonded goods (B6), declaration for returned domestic goods (G7), declaration for bonded goods withdrawn from bonded warehouses (D2), and declaration for goods moving among bonded warehouses or bonded factories (D7).
(2) Export declarations: including declaration for re-export foreign goods（G3）, declaration for general export goods (G5), declaration for goods re-exported by bonded factories (B8), and declaration for export goods produced by bonded factories (B9).
The declaration forms referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be filled out and transmitted to Customs electronically.
Article 6
The guarantee referred to in subparagraph 3 of Article 3 shall be provided in one of the following forms:
(1) cash;
(2) a government bond;
(3) a time deposit certificate issued by a bank ;
(4) a time deposit certificate issued by a credit co-operative;
(5) a common trust certificate valid for one-year or more issued by a trust and investment company; or
(6) a guarantee made by a financial institution
The guarantee provided in any of the forms specified in Subparagraphs 2 to 5 of the preceding paragraph shall be pledged to Customs.
Article 7
An enterprise which wishes to apply for the status of an Authorized Trader shall fill out an application form, specifying the name, Tax Identification Number, address, amount of capital, and contact person, and then submit the above-mentioned application to any Customs Bureau together with the following documents：
(1) An original and a photocopy of a certificate regarding the registration for running a profit-seeking enterprise. Nevertheless, those who plan to apply for taking affidavits as the guarantee of duties and taxes shall further submit an original and a photocopy of a certificate regarding the registration of factories and provide information about the annual amount of sales over the most recent three years.
(2) Certificates regarding the registration for the establishment of that enterprise and for running import/export businesses, which may be downloaded from the websites of the Department of Commerce or the BOFT, Ministry of Economic Affairs.
(3) Certificates of annual import/export performance over recent three years presented by the BOFT, Ministry of Economic Affairs or other agencies, private associations delegated or entrusted by the BOFT; or a medal for excellent importer/exporter or a certificate of excellent trade performance awarded by the BOFT, Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The responsible Customs Bureau shall, on completing the process of verification, return the original documents submitted pursuant to the preceding paragraph by an enterprise.
Article 8
The scrutiny of an application for the status of Authorized Trader or determination of the maximum amount of liabilities an affidavit may undertake shall be made by the Customs bureau concerned. Such determination shall also be applicable for other Customs bureaus.
An enterprise on which the status of Authorized Trader has been conferred shall apply every year for reviewing whether such status can be sustained and, where applicable, the maximum amount of liabilities its affidavit may undertake. The above-mentioned annual application shall be submitted to the Customs bureau, by which the Authorized Trader status was conferred, one month prior to the expiration of the one-year validity period.
Article 9
For an enterprise to which the application for submitting an affidavit, in lieu of providing a guarantee of duty and charges, has been granted, the maximum amount of liabilities its affidavit may undertake shall not exceed twice the monthly average amount of import duty and charges in the one-calendar-year period prior to the date of the application.
Article 10
Customs shall, by the end of the fifth day of each month, print out a list of duty memos and import declarations covering the goods cleared in the capacity of an Authorized Trader in the previous month, and the Trader concerned shall pay the duties and charges due in a consolidated manner within the time limit prescribed in the Act.
Notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, an Authorized Trader may choose to pay the duty and charges on a transaction-by-transaction basis in a month.
Article 11
When an authorized trader applies for an affidavit as the substitute of a guarantee of duty and charges under the provisions of Article 4, its Customs- authorized quota may be used only to cover the duty payment accounts due on a monthly basis as prescribed in these Regulation.
Where an authorized trader submits a duty payment guarantee pursuant to the provisions of Article 6, the maximum value of the guarantee submitted may be used to cover the amount of its duty payment accounts due on a monthly basis under the provisions of the these Regulation and the post-release duty payment accounts under the provisions of the Regulations Governing the Implementation of Post-Release Duty Payment Procedures for Imported Goods.
Article 12
Where an Authorized Trader does not pay the import duty and charges due within the time limit prescribed by the Act or commits other offenses, Customs shall recover the duty and charges, delinquent fee, and the interest incurred pursuant to Article 74 and Article 95 of the Act. In addition, Customs may suspend the status of Authorized Trader for a period of no more than one year, based on the scenario of each offense.
Where an Authorized Trader to whom the provision of affidavits in lieu of guarantees has been granted does not pay the import duty and charges due within the time limit prescribed by the Act or commits other offenses, Customs shall take measures as provided for in the preceding paragraph. In addition, Customs may also suspend the status of Authorized Trader for a period of no more than one year.
Article 13
The traders having been granted, before the entry into force of these Regulations, to carry out "consolidated clearance procedures" pursuant to the Regulations Governing the Implementation of Consolidated Clearance Procedures for Import/Export goods shall be regarded as Authorized Traders and thus applicable to these Regulations, provided that the validity period for carrying out consolidated clearance procedures has not expired.
Article 14
These Regulations shall be effective from the date of their proclamation.

NOTE
In case of any discrepancy between the English version and the Chinese text of this Statute, the Chinese text shall govern.