Are imported seafood always detained? The unspoken customs declaration rules unknown to Jinan people

Deep into the night, the Jinan seafood market is still brightly lit. Salmon from Norway, lobsters from Canada, and king crabs from Russia are waiting for the final customs - clearance inspection. Mr. Zhang stares at the logistics information on his mobile phone screen, his brows tightly knitted. This batch of chilled seafood worth 800,000 yuan has been detained at the customs for 48 hours. "I've submitted the full set of documents. Why is there still a customs hold?" Such confusion is exactly the real - world problem faced by many importers.

Different from other commodities, the import of aquatic products can be regarded as a "high - difficulty move" in the field of customs declaration: the triple tests of timeliness, hygiene standards, and tariff policies have caused many enterprises to fail. Taking Jinan as an example, among the unqualified aquatic products intercepted by the local customs in 2023, 23% were due to incomplete quarantine certificates, 17% were due to labels not meeting national standards, and 9% were due to the lack of transportation temperature records.

• Time - efficiency trap: For every 1 - hour delay in the customs clearance of chilled products, the quality risk increases by 5%
• Document maze: It is necessary to meet the requirements of 7 types of documents, such as the certificate of origin, health certificate, fishing license, etc.
• Tariff fluctuation: After the implementation of RCEP, the tariff of some categories has decreased by 2.5% annually

The typical cases handled by the Zhongshitong customs - declaration team show that a mature agency service includes three key stages:

The first stage: Pre - inspection and pre - judgment
Before the goods are shipped, professionals will check the water area classification of the exporting country (such as the fishing area defined by EU EC Regulation No. 854/2004) to confirm whether it is on China's access list. Ms. Li's order of Chilean abalone avoided the risk of full - container return because it was discovered in advance that the fishing area number did not match the permit.

The second stage: Dynamic monitoring
Real - time tracking of the transportation status through the GPS temperature - control system. During the transportation of Japanese tuna, a refrigeration failure occurred. The agency team immediately activated the backup plan and urgently replaced the refrigerated truck at Qingdao Port. Finally, the central temperature of the goods was controlled within the safe threshold of - 60°C.

The third stage: Intelligent customs - clearance
Using the combined strategy of "advance declaration + two - step declaration", last year, the customs - clearance time of Boston lobsters for a Jinan importer was compressed to 3 hours, and the live survival rate was maintained above 98%.

With the revision of the Measures for the Administration of Import and Export Food Safety, three significant changes have occurred in the import of aquatic products:

• 11 new prohibited fishery drug residue detections (including malachite green metabolites) have been added
• 6 countries, including Russia and Peru, have launched the electronic health certificate exchange system
• The whole - journey temperature fluctuation curve chart needs to be kept for cold - chain transportation

When a batch of Norwegian cod caused an over - payment of 68,000 yuan in tariffs due to the wrong use of the "frozen and boiled" HS code, the importer realized the value of professional customs declaration. You might as well take a self - test: Can you accurately state the regulatory condition code of your latest batch of goods? Are you clear about the latest classification guidelines for aquatic products issued by the customs? If the answer is no, perhaps it's time to re - evaluate your customs - clearance strategy.