In order to further enhance customs border enforcement  and prevent major prohibited items such as meat products infected with African Swine Fever and narcotics from being imported into Taiwan, Taiwan Customs Administration has gradually phased out the packages consolidatation measure (multi-packages packed as a full bag) for the air express consignments. Phase one of the said policy started from November 1, 2021, where air express cargoes imported from 10 Southeast Asian countries of African Swine Fever epidemic area are prohibited from clearance if they are consolidated in bags. Phase two is subdivided into two stages: starting from December 1, 2021, the number of packages imported from the remaining countries and consolidated in one bag shall not exceed 20, while, starting from February 1, 2022, this number shall be reduced to 10. The third and final phase has recently been announced by Customs Administration to be implemented on April 1, 2022, whereby the packages consolidation measure will be completely phased out for general express consignments, while e-commerce goods of small quantities may still be conditionally consolidated.

Customs Administration indicates that, considering the lack of warehouse capacity in the Air Express Handling Unit has made it difficult for Customs to clear express consignments in a timely manner, the third phase allows small quantity of express consignments imported via cross-border e-commerce to be conditionally cleared in bags after consolidation, so as to expedite the customs processing time for e-commerce goods, despite the cancellation of packages consolidation measure for general express cargoes. Most of the e-commerce consignments are daily necessities or consumer articles purchased by the general public through well-known online shopping platforms, which are clearly sourced, small in quantity, small in size, and lightweight. Therefore, customs officers can still clearly interpret the X-ray images of small quantity of e-commerce goods consolidated in bags. In this way, not only can the customs border enforcement and facilitated customs clearance of e-commerce goods be maintained but the problem of insufficient warehouse capacity can also be resolved.

Customs Administration calls on express delivery companies to abide by relevant regulations. If they are found to exploit the packages consolidation measure to illegally import prohibited items or consolidate non-e-commerce packages for customs clearance, Customs may suspend or revoke their customs clearance qualifications for expediting packages consolidation. Taiwan Customs will spare no effort to carry out the management of express delivery businesses and seriously enforce relevant regulations, so as to maintain the exercise of Customs' public authority.

Phone: (02)2550-5500 ext.2521