A Study On Customs Advance Ruling System From The Perspective Of Trade Facilitation Agreement

Customs advance ruling system is originated from the domestic law of the United States and developed earlier in the domestic law of developed member countries.Customs advance ruling aims to improve the transparency of customs procedures and to reduce trade costs,promoting the predictability of Customs Law enforcement and foreign trade.It has become an important part of the reform and negotiation between customs administrations and international organizations in the early twenty-first century.The World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade Facilitation makes unified requirements and regulations on customs advance ruling,realizes the unification of transparency of trade information and customs procedures in different countries,and achieves the goal of trade facilitation.Customs advance ruling system realizes the unification of domestic law and international rules,and comparatively studies the advanced legislation and practice in developed member,so as to provide reference for developing members to enhance trade facilitation.In order to improve the level of customs facilitation and to expand the impact of foreign trade,China has introduced the customs advance ruling system,and continuously improved it for fulfilling the obligations and specific commitments of international agreements.The first part is an introduction which mainly contains research background,theoretical and practical significance,domestic and international literature review,research methods and innovation.The second part introduces the basic legal system of customs advance ruling system under the background of international trade,and summarizes its international and domestic legal sources and legislative purposes.The concept of customs advance ruling is differentiated in many countries.Referring to the system of tax pre-ruling in the field of Tax law,the thesis defines customs advance ruling as a litigious quasi-administrative act.The second part introduces the basic legal system of under the background of international trade,including the differentiated provisions of the concept of customs advance ruling,the definition of legal nature,international and domestic legal sources and legislative purposes.The third part focuses on the unified provisions of the customs advance ruling from Agreement on Trade Facilitation,which is subjected to Article III of the Agreement.It is one of the outcomes of negotiation proposals on trade facilitation issues of the World Trade Organization and its members.It cooperates with and draws lessons from the World Customs Organization in this field.The fourth part is returned from the international agreements to the specific implementation of developed member countries in customs advance ruling system among the United States,Japan and the European Union.Compared with the customs advance ruling clause of the Agreement on Trade Facilitation,these developed members accord with and advance the international obligations.It can be used for reference to developing members in the fields of legislative unification,transparency and confidentiality rules of customs advance ruling,promoting trade compliance with the law.The fifth part returns to make comparison between the customs advance ruling system in China and the Agreement on Trade Facilitation.The thesis summarizes the highlights and shortages of domestic legislation reforms in customs advance ruling,as well as the differences between China’s Free Trade Agreements and the Agreement on Trade Facilitation.There are still some problems in China,such as inconsistent legislative system,low transparency and inadequate supervision mechanism.China can learn from the practical experiences of developed members,which include the compliance obligations of traders,the publicity and confidential measures of advance ruling documents,and the internal customs review system,improving the reforms of domestic customs facilitation.