The new Customs Law is going to be formally enacted on January 1, 2001 after some amendments made to the existing one according to the decisions on Revising Customs Law of the People's Republic of China passed at the 16th Session of the Ninth National People's Congress.
The existing Customs Law, effected on July 1, 1987, could not fully meet the present-day needs of entry and exit supervision due to the tremendous changes in domestic and foreign economic situations in the past 13 years and so it's necessary and imperative to make a revision of it.
The new Law has been replenished, perfected and added with some relevant contents. It can basically help solve some legal problems for the customs to combat against smuggling. For instance, it has explicitly stipulated the lawful status of Customs Police in the anti-smuggling work, the anti-smuggling system and division of work and obligation and an appropriate extension of Customs authority to crack down upon smuggling. Some existing but not perfect system and regulations in the former law have been altered with a new supervision system re-established to take its place.
In the meanwhile, the new Customs Law has further intensified supervision and restriction on the rights of law enforcement by customs personnel with the transparency in its execution enhanced.
(People's Daily 12/26/2000)
