Customs speed clearance of vital supplies

Ti Gong

Customs at Shanghai Pudong International Airport expedited the clearance of more than 1,000 batches of imported medical supplies donated to China from 69 countries and regions overseas, the customs said on Tuesday.

During the coronavirus pandemic, customs launched an emergency clearance mechanism and set up a special group for the import of medical supplies. Windows and green channels specializing in supplies for pandemic prevention and control have been opened with a customized clearance plan for each related enterprise.

In a recent case, the Shanghai Waigaoqiao bonded area customs released a batch of imported medical supplies donated by Johnson & Johnson's local branch ahead of having the company complete tax exemption procedures.

The supplies included 1,377 N95 masks, 7,800 protective clothing sets, 8,026 pairs of goggles and 87 temperature sensors.

Since this company is a major donor of medical supplies, customs provided one-on-one services for it and quickly cleared six batches of its donations, including 455,000 masks, 92,000 sets of protective clothing and 115,000 pairs of goggles.

Meanwhile, as the overseas coronavirus pandemic worsens, customs are also helping medical supplies get to all over the world as soon as possible.

DHL's local branch recently declared a batch of medical supplies as its donation to Switzerland. Customs at the Pudong airport quickly cleared the consignment and the batch of 28,000 masks arrived in Leipzig the same day and were soon delivered to recipients.

At 2pm on March 25, Wusong customs received an urgent application from Shanghai Fosun Long March Medical Science Co for the clearance of 80,000 nucleic acid test kits, which needed to be on an overseas flight leaving at 5pm.

Customs’ quick services ensured the nucleic acid test kits, for use in countries including Germany, Portugal and Indonesia, left on time.