I. Various Contraband Items
1. All kinds of dangerous articles that are explosive, flammable, corrosive, toxic, strongly acidic, alkaline or radioactive, such as detonators, gunpowder, firecrackers, gasoline, alcohol, kerosene, tung oil, raw lacquer, matches, pesticides, and all chemical products listed in the Practical Handbook of Chemical Dangerous Goods published by Chemical Industry Press.
2. Narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, such as opium, morphine, cocaine, etc.; articles prohibited from circulation or shipment by state decrees, such as weapons, ammunition, domestic or foreign currencies, etc.
3. Perishable articles and all kinds of live animals (e.g., fresh fish, fresh meat, etc.).
4. Articles impairing public health, such as human remains (including cremated remains), untanned animal hides, unprocessed animal bones, etc.
5. Reactionary newspapers, periodicals, books, publications, or pornographic materials.
6. If the chemical products you consign are not included in thePractical Handbook of Chemical Dangerous Goods, you must provide a certificate issued by a chemical product appraisal department at or above the municipal level to confirm that the relevant articles are non-hazardous chemical products before shipment. The relevant appraisal department shall be responsible for the appraisal results.
II. State Prohibited Import and Export Articles
2.1 Articles Prohibited from Import
(1) All kinds of weapons, ammunition, simulated weapons and explosives;
(2) Counterfeit currencies and counterfeit negotiable securities;
(3) Printed matter, films, photographs, records, cinematograph films, audio tapes, laser discs, computer storage media and other articles harmful to China’s politics, economy, culture and morals;
(4) All kinds of lethal poisons;
(5) Opium, morphine, heroin, marijuana and other addictive narcotics and psychotropic drugs;
(6) Animals, plants and their products carrying dangerous germs, pests and other harmful organisms;
(7) Food, medicines or other articles from epidemic-stricken areas that are harmful to human and animal health and can spread diseases.
2.2 All Articles Prohibited from Export
(1) All articles listed in the scope of prohibited imports;
(2) Manuscripts, printed matter, films, photographs, records, cinematograph films, audio tapes, laser discs, computer storage media and other articles involving state secrets;
(3) Precious cultural relics and other cultural relics prohibited from export;
(4) Endangered and rare animals, plants (including specimens), their seeds and breeding materials.
III. Penalty Provisions for Branch Violations
3.1 Highway Transport Lines
It is strictly prohibited to load any liquid articles and state-prohibited items on network vehicles:
(1) Those concealed and mixed onto network vehicles, regardless of consequences, shall be fined 100 yuan per incident once found. After verification and approval by the network management, the sender shall destroy the articles on the spot.
(2) Those concealed and mixed onto network vehicles that cause damage to other express items shall be compensated in accordance with the relevant regulations on lost items of the network management, and fined 1,000–5,000 yuan per incident. Those causing personal injury or disability shall bear all medical expenses and lost wages, and be fined 5,000–10,000 yuan per incident. For serious consequences, they shall be handled in accordance with relevant state regulations and held criminally liable.
3.2 Air Transport Lines
Subject to prohibited items specified by aviation authorities:
(1) Those found at transfer centers shall be fined 200 yuan per waybill. Non-liquid and non-flammable & explosive articles may be considered for return.
(2) Those found during airline security inspection without consequences shall be fined 500 yuan per waybill and handled in accordance with relevant airline regulations.
(3) Those found during airline security inspection that cause consequences shall bear all fines and other legal liabilities imposed by aviation authorities, and shall be additionally fined 1,000–5,000 yuan per incident by the network management.
IV. Contraband Identification Labels
- Class 1: Explosive substances and articles
- Class 2: Gases
- Division 2.1 Flammable gases: Symbol (flame) – black or white; background – red
- Division 2.2 Non-flammable, non-toxic gases: Symbol (gas cylinder) – black or white; background – green
- Division 2.3 Toxic gases: Symbol (skull and crossbones) – black; background – white
- Class 3: Flammable liquids
- Class 4: Flammable solids
- Division 4.1 Flammable solids
- Division 4.2 Substances liable to spontaneous combustion
- Division 4.3 Substances which, in contact with water, emit flammable gases
- Class 5: Oxidizing substances
- Division 5.1 Oxidizing substances
- Division 5.2 Organic peroxides
- Class 6
- Division 6.1 Toxic substances
- Division 6.2 Infectious substances
- Class 7: Radioactive materials
- Level I – White
- Level II – Yellow
- Level III – Yellow
- Class 7 Fissile materials
- Class 8: Corrosive substances
- Class 9: Miscellaneous dangerous substances and articles
V. Explanation of Common Cargo Types
5.1 General Cargo
"General Cargo" refers to ordinary goods (General Cargo). They are not dangerous goods, not frozen/refrigerated goods, not contraband, not counterfeit goods, and not sensitive goods.
Dangerous goods are easy to understand; they fall into 9 categories and can be classified accordingly. Frozen/refrigerated goods are mainly perishable fresh goods, mainly food. Counterfeit goods generally refer to imitations of others' brands, which constitute intellectual property infringement. Contraband and sensitive goods mainly refer to products explicitly prohibited by the state, products endangering social stability, non-renewable resources such as rare earths, military supplies, and some grains are also relatively sensitive.
From the perspective of Customs and Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine (CIQ), "General Cargo" usually refers to goods without any customs supervision conditions or inspection and quarantine categories — these goods do not require special supervision and do not need to provide supervision documents or approvals such as Exit Cargo Declaration Form, Export License, Permit for Export of Endangered Species, Import (Export) Permit for Psychotropic Drugs, Clearance Certificate for Legally Fished Products, Tariff Quota Certificate, and 3C Certification.
For air transport, many products with electricity (batteries), high-value products such as high-end cameras and luxury watches, are also not general cargo. Precisely speaking, the General Cargo Rate (GCR) for air transport — only those goods that are neither specified commodities (special goods) nor class rate goods are general cargo, applicable to the general cargo rate. For example:
Textiles, fibers and their products; machinery, vehicles and electrical equipment; scientific and precision instruments, apparatus and accessories; newspapers, magazines, periodicals, books for the blind, books and other publications; mid-to-high-end cameras, mobile phones, computers, small precision instruments, etc., are not general cargo for air transport.
5.2 Counterfeit Goods
"Counterfeit Goods", also known as counterfeit brands (Counterfeit), generally refer to imitations of others' brands or logos — imitating appearance and logos without valid brand authorization. "Counterfeit goods" are not equivalent to fake goods or knockoffs. Concepts such as counterfeit goods, fake goods, knockoffs, original manufacturer goods, genuine goods, and counter goods are easily confused; if you are interested, you can search for them on Google or Baidu, and we will not elaborate here.
5.3 Mixed Goods (Mixed Container/Bundled Declaration Container)
A batch (waybill) of goods has a wide variety of types, so miscellaneous that it is difficult to declare separately and standardizedly according to the actual situation. To "simplify" the customs declaration process, exporters often pay "high" customs clearance fees and directly find customs brokers/customs declarers who provide "bundled declaration" services to declare as "mixed goods" or "bundled declaration containers". This approach is similar to "gray customs clearance". For example:
Recently, a customer who runs a Chinese restaurant in the United States purchased a 40GP container of "mixed goods" in China for export to the United States. Some of the goods are as follows:
Tables and chairs, screens, wood carvings, solid wood composite skirting boards; stainless steel troughs, scorpion pots, skimmers, oil strainers, seasoning jars, fresh-keeping boxes, vegetable baskets, basins, soup spoons, trays, woks, cutting boards, machetes, oilstones, rolling pins, water scoops, graters, flour sieves, chopsticks, lamps; various spices including pai cao (valerian root), bay leaves, cinnamon, kaempferia galanga, nutmeg, star anise, clove, amomum tsao-ko, star anise, dried tangerine peel, licorice, amomum villosum, luo han guo (monk fruit), angelica dahurica, piper longum, cumin, amomum kravanh, white pepper, dried ginger, galangal, Chinese prickly ash, Sichuan peppercorn; various tableware such as three-curved soup spoons, straight cups, 5-inch rice bowls, 7-inch shallow plates, condiment dishes, Han-style dishes, chili bowls, 5-inch straight-mouth bowls, large Meixing pots, 9-inch grid plates, 4-inch stew pots, toothpick holders, 9-inch shallow plates, vases, iron plates, dish covers, chopstick rests, forks, mahjong tables, etc.; decorative items such as stage lights, glass balls, LED stroboscopes, Jinge small spotlights, pattern laser machines, Chinese knots, LED micro-control connectors, sound amplifiers, power amplifiers, wireless microphones, hangers, song selectors, wire accessories, sound amplifiers, power amplifiers, preamplifiers, hangers, song selectors, wire accessories, audio cabinets, private room seats and tea tables, marble veneers, marble wood lines, crystal plates, as well as quick-drying powder, water-based paint, jintang (golden pond), gold powder, white latex, etc., totaling more than 150 different product names!
If you were a customs declarer, what would you do when faced with such "miscellaneous" goods?
In fact, a large variety of goods is not too troublesome — "declaration in separate waybills" is acceptable. The biggest problem is that some commodities, such as spices, have supervision conditions, while the customer is an individual and the goods are directly purchased from the market, making it impossible to provide the supervision documents or approvals required for normal customs clearance, so only "bundled declaration" can be used.
5.4 Contraband and Sensitive Goods
1) "Contraband" is usually directly prohibited from export; if you want to export contraband, you can only make a false declaration. Contraband usually refers to those that need to be prohibited from export to protect endangered animals and plants, toxic and harmful products involving safety, environmental protection and health, and some scarce resources. For example: tiger bones, rhinoceros horns, bezoar, musk, ephedra, facai (hairweed), charcoal, dibromochloropropane, aldrin, heptachlor, toxaphene, dinitrophenol, etc.
2) "Sensitive goods" generally refer to goods subject to statutory inspection (legal inspection) (including those in the legal inspection catalog — with export supervision condition B, and legal inspection goods outside the catalog). For example: animals and animal products, plants and plant products, food, beverages and alcohol, certain mineral products and chemical products (especially dangerous goods), cosmetics, fireworks and firecrackers, lighters, wood and wood products (including wooden furniture), etc.
3) From the perspective of the Customs, "sensitive goods" are the so-called "high-risk" goods, mainly referring to goods that are prone to "high export tax rebates" and "false high declaration for tax rebates". For example: daily necessities, clothing, shoes and hats, lamps, hardware, and Christmas supplies, etc. These commodities are often subject to key review of export prices by the Customs.
4) The Customs' judgment on the risk level of exported goods (the "sensitivity" of sensitive goods) is also related to the header of the consignor/consignee (called "operating unit" in the old version of the customs declaration form). For example: headers from Chongqing, Anhui, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Gansu, Quzhou, Zhoushan and other places are likely to be "buyer's declaration" (a common form of false trade), and the Customs may conduct key control. In addition, a single waybill with an excessively high price (e.g., exceeding 100,000 US dollars) may also be the focus of "attention" by the Customs.
In addition, goods subject to export tax, goods involving copyright or political factors, and goods similar to contraband are also classified as sensitive goods.
The above briefly explains "sensitive goods" from the perspective of the Customs. In fact, from the perspective of carriers (airlines, courier companies, shipping companies, etc.), the meaning of "sensitive goods" is slightly different. For example:
In air transport, the sensitive goods we often refer to also include "electrified" (with batteries) commodities (e.g., electrical equipment may contain batteries; electric appliances such as lawn mowers, golf carts, wheelchairs, etc., may contain batteries); magnetic commodities (e.g., speakers, microphones, sound boxes, headphones, motors, electric motors); powders, pastes, liquids, and gases; cosmetics, food, medicines; counterfeit goods; electronic products; adult products, etc.
Oh, I see. Tiger bones, rhinoceros horns, bezoar, facai (hairweed), charcoal... are prohibited from export.
