GAC Revises the Discretionary Criteria for Customs Administrative Penalties (II)

On February 19, 2025, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) published the Announcement on Revising the Discretionary Criteria for Customs Administrative Penalties (II) (the “Criteria (II)”) on its website, which will take effect on March 1, 2025.

The Criteria (II) consists of four chapters and seventeen articles. It primarily deletes 18 items that are inconsistent with the newly revised Frontier Health and Quarantine Law and adds 16 new items. A new “First-Time Violation Penalty Exemption” list has been added, clearly specifying ten first-time violation penalty exemptions, such as failing to declare health quarantine inspection items as required, failing to declare or misdeclaring the export of bamboo, wood, and straw products, and evading import and export commodity inspections by not declaring. The “first-time” period is set within 24 months, and the scope of violation determination is set within the same inspection and quarantine business field for administrative and criminal violations. In addition, the Criteria (II) also adjusts and improves the existing discretionary items, expands the scope of the minor penalty exemption list, and adds common violation scenarios for imported and exported grain and imported food products.