In April 2018, the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ)'s entry-exit inspection and quarantine department was merged into the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China (GACC) "关检合并". With the merger, Customs will be the primary agency in charge of inspecting and clearing products at ports of entry. Changes to clearance procedures and forms have already been implemented and more are expected.

To provide members with a better understanding of how to comply with the new changes, AmCham Shanghai's Trade Facilitation Taskforce (TFT) will provide a briefing at 9:00-11:30am on August 31 at AmCham Shanghai's Conference Center. The briefing features presentations by PricewaterhouseCoopers Worldtrade Management Services and Amber Road on recent reforms and new regulations introduced by the merger. And the two sessions will focus on:

• How to navigate the new Customs declaration and clearance process under the newly integrated declaration system by Kae-por Chang, Managing Director from Amber Road
• Introduction of China's compliance and implementation of the Authorized Economic Operators (AEO) programme and China's new Customs Enterprise Rating System (Chinese session) (海关企业信用管理办法 effective on May 1 2018) by Michael Wu, Worldtrade Management Services Manager, PwC

The TFT will also provide an overview of the results of its 2018 AmCham Shanghai Trade and Environment Satisfaction Survey Report. The annual report provides feedback from member companies on Shanghai Customs performance and reform initiatives. The survey is an integral part of TFT's long running dialogue with Shanghai Customs and includes recommendations on how to improve the trade facilitation environment in Shanghai.