On August 12th, the Chinese government website issued a notice from the General Office of the State Council, issuing a plan for the division of key tasks in the national deepening of the reform of "streamlining management and improving service" and optimizing the business environment through television and telephone conferences. The plan has made specific measures and requirements for promoting the reform of "streamlining management and serving the government" and optimizing the business environment. Among them, arbitrary fees, fee reduction, cross-border trade facilitation, and customs supervision mechanisms are worthy of attention by the aviation trade industry. The key measures include the following:

The plan proposes to first reduce the logistics costs of enterprises, urge various regions to publicize the list of port charges, and rectify the behavior of ports, shipping companies, logistics yards, freight forwarders, and shipping agents in charging indiscriminately and unreasonably. By the end of 2020, the regular import and export fees for individual containers nationwide will be reduced to less than $400. Clean up freight and passenger miscellaneous fees on railways and waterways, reduce fee standards, and publish a list of fees and penalties by the end of 2019. (Responsible by relevant departments of the State Council such as the Ministry of Transport, the General Administration of Customs, the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Railway Bureau, and various regions according to their respective responsibilities)

Secondly, in order to enhance the level of cross-border trade facilitation, the plan proposes to strengthen the cooperation and docking between the "single window" of international trade and relevant industry institutions such as banks, insurance, civil aviation, railways, ports, etc., and achieve a main application rate of 100% by the end of 2019. Further streamline the number of regulatory documents for import and export, accelerate the implementation of the "early declaration", "two-step declaration" customs clearance mode and paperless customs clearance operations for import and export. (Led by the General Administration of Customs, relevant departments of the State Council such as the Ministry of Transport, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the Civil Aviation Administration, and the Railway Administration, as well as various regions, are responsible according to their respective responsibilities)

In addition, establish and improve a new type of credit based customs supervision mechanism, implement differentiated customs clearance supervision measures based on enterprise credit ratings, and introduce certification standards for cross-border e-commerce and other enterprises by the end of 2019. (Responsible by the General Administration of Customs)

In order to promote the reduction of compliance costs in the import and export process, since last year, the State Council has established a leading group for clearing port fees, led by the Ministry of Finance and jointly participated by the General Administration of Customs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration for Market Regulation, to coordinate and promote port fee reduction work. The release of this plan has made "port fee reduction" one of the most eye-catching measures. Previously, the port industry had undergone multiple rounds of tariff reductions.

In November 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission conducted an antitrust investigation on ports, and multiple port terminals voluntarily lowered their fees.

In September 2018, the Executive Meeting of the State Council decided to clean up non compliant fees. By the end of October, local ports will publish a list of local port fees to the public, and fees outside the list are not allowed. Promoting the reduction of compliance costs, the compliance costs for container import and export will be reduced by more than $100 compared to last year, and coastal ports will have a greater reduction.

On March 5, 2019, the Prime Minister proposed in a government work report to "cancel or reduce a number of railway and port charges".

Starting from April 1, 2019, the Ministry of Transport has reduced the charging standards for cargo port fees, port facility security fees, pilotage (relocation) fees, and tugboat fees for domestic routes by 15%, 20%, 10%, and 5%, respectively. Domestic trade ships of 80 meters or less entering and exiting coastal ports (excluding chemical ships and liquefied gas ships), and domestic trade ships of 150 meters or less entering and exiting Yangtze River mainline ports, shall be determined by the ship owner based on the actual situation, while ensuring safety. According to calculations, this move will reduce port fees by 1.8 billion yuan.

On July 3, 2019, Huang Guansheng, Director of the National Port Management Office, stated that the port fee reduction work has achieved positive results. 62 shipping companies have voluntarily announced a series of cost reductions, including port operating fees, which have decreased by 5% to 10% compared to before.

In addition to reducing fees, this plan also optimizes and relaxes the business environment of the port and shipping industry in terms of facilitation and regulation. The implementation of these three measures will inject new vitality into the industry and enable the port and shipping industry to further open up and embrace the market.

In addition, the "Division of Work Plan" also proposes to study and formulate the "Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment" as soon as possible. By the end of August 2019, the work of soliciting opinions and reviewing regulations from all relevant parties will be completed, and a draft will be formed. It will be announced and implemented before the end of September.