Apr. 9 – The State Administration of Foreign Exchange is implementing new pilot reforms of China’s import verification system.

Circular Huifa [2010] No. 14, released on April 2, states that seven provinces and cities including Tianjin, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hubei, Inner Mongolia, Fujian and Qingdao, will begin these pilot reforms of their import verification system from May 1, 2010.

Under the pilot reforms, qualified import enterprises in the aforementioned pilot project regions will not need to process on-the-spot verification procedures for normal import payments.

Online verification procedures for banks conducting import payments for enterprises have been canceled and enterprises will no longer have to process advance filing with foreign exchange bureaus for long-distance payments.