The “Announcement of the General Administration of Customs on Amending the Criteria for the Discretion of Customs Administrative Penalties (II)” has been implemented since March 1, 2025.

The “Frontier Health and Quarantine Law” was amended on June 28, 2024, and came into force on January 1, 2025. This law has made important amendments to the supervision items of frontier health and quarantine, illegal acts, and legal liabilities. Consequently, the General Administration of Customs organized the amendment of the “Criteria for the Discretion of Customs Administrative Penalties (II)” (Announcement No. 187 of the General Administration of Customs in 2023), and formulated the “Announcement of the General Administration of Customs on Amending the Criteria for the Discretion of Customs Administrative Penalties (II)” (Announcement No. 21 of the General Administration of Customs in 2025, hereinafter referred to as ” No. 21″), which has been implemented since March 1, 2025. No. 21 has revised 3 clauses and the attached list specifying the specific criteria, and added an attached “List of Exemption from Punishment for First-time Illegal Acts”. The key points are as follows:

1.In line with the newly amended “Frontier Health and Quarantine Law”, No. 21 has deleted the contents related to health quarantine in the previous version of No.187, and added 1 item of “List of Exemption from Punishment for Minor Illegal Acts”, 1 item of “List of Exemption from Punishment for First-time Illegal Acts”, 8 illegal acts of common cases, and 4 illegal acts applicable to simple procedures and quick handling of cases.

(1) Improving the “List of Exemption from Punishment for Minor Illegal Acts”. Considering the actual situation of personnel exchanges in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, in order to accommodate the normal work and life of inbound and outbound passengers, the acts of exemption from punishment for minor illegal acts have been improved. For example, penalties for carrying cooked meat and its products, as well as commercially packaged milk and dairy products, are differentiated according to different situations. In response to the problems of a large number of administrative penalty cases for the export of a small amount of unpackaged food, with a relatively low value of goods and fine amounts, it is stipulated that if the exported food comes from an enterprise that has obtained a domestic food business license, it can be exempted from punishment.

(2) Adding the “List of Exemption from Punishment for First-time Illegal Acts”. For inspection and quarantine declaration violations that are often caused by unintentional mistakes, can be corrected in a timely manner, and have not caused any harmful consequences (failure to declare health quarantine inspection as required, failure to declare or false declaration of outbound bamboo, wood, and grass products, and evading commodity inspection by failing to apply for inspection), which have been listed in the scope of exemption from punishment for first-time illegal acts.

2.The application rule of No. 21 is that if an enterprise’s illegal act or the initiation of a customs administrative case occurs before March 1, but the customs has not made an administrative penalty decision after March 1, adhering to the principle of “Applying the Old Law with the Preference for the Lighter Punishment”, the customs should select the criteria for the discretion of administrative penalties that are more favorable to the enterprise when making the administrative penalty decision.