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The Chinese export declaration holds 105 fillable items across four parts. Nine blocks decide whether it clears first time: who is legally declaring, how the goods move, under which supervision code, at which HS code, and on which price terms. Nearly every delay an overseas buyer experiences traces back to three of those blocks.
The declaration is a single filing but it is built from four parts: the header, which carries the commercial and transport facts of the shipment; the goods lines, one per product; the container details; and the attached documents. Across those four parts sit 105 fillable items.
Two of them are never typed by hand. The pre-entry number and the customs number are both returned by the system when the entry is accepted, and both follow the same pattern. The customs number runs to 18 digits: four for the code of the customs office that accepted the filing, four for the year of entry, one for direction, and nine for the serial. The direction digit is one for imports and zero for exports. So an entry accepted in Ningbo in 2026 begins with the office code and the year, and the ninth digit tells you immediately which way the goods are moving.
The 105 items are easier to work with in nine groups. Customs trainers group them this way because the errors cluster inside blocks rather than across them.
| Block | What it holds | Where the data comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Basic identification | Declaring office, pre-entry number, customs number | System and broker |
| Movement and dates | Port of entry or exit, import or export date, declaration date | Broker and forwarder |
| Parties | Domestic consignor or consignee, overseas counterparty, producer or consumer unit | Contract, plus the overseas party you name |
| Transport | Mode, vessel or flight and voyage, bill of lading number | Forwarder |
| Trade and duty treatment | Supervision code, levy nature, licence numbers | Broker, confirmed against the product |
| Geography | Origin and destination country, port of loading, port of destination | Contract, plus your discharge port |
| Price and cost | Price terms, freight, insurance, miscellaneous charges | Invoice and contract |
| Goods detail | HS code, goods name and specification, quantity and units | Supplier technical data |
| Other items | Remarks, related-party confirmation, price-influence confirmation, royalty confirmation, attachments | Case by case |
Two fields in this block are routinely confused, and the confusion has financial consequences.
| Field | What it means | Consequence if wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic consignor or consignee | The Chinese entity that signed and executed the trade contract, identified by its 18-digit unified social credit code | Legal responsibility for the filing lands on the wrong company |
| Producer or seller | The entity that produced or sold the goods inside China | Export refund application no longer matches the declaring party |
The distinction is one of role, not of size. The consignor is the party answerable to customs for the accuracy of the declaration. The producer or seller is the party that owns the goods commercially and claims the export refund. When the two are the same company the fields look identical and nobody notices. When a trading company buys from a factory and exports in its own name, they diverge, and mixing them up distorts the trade statistics and stalls the refund.
Three situations need care. When the party that signed the contract is not the party executing it, the executor is declared. When a foreign-invested enterprise imports equipment as part of its investment, the enterprise itself is declared. When goods sit inside a special customs supervision area, the actual operating company inside the area is declared, not the head office outside it.
The transport block is what lets customs reconstruct the physical route of the goods, so the mode and the identifier have to agree with reality.
One declaration carries one bill of lading number. A shipment that produces several bills has to be split into several declarations, one per bill. This is the single most common planning error on consolidated cargo, because the forwarder issues one bill per house shipment while the shipper assumes one declaration covers the lot.
One declaration carries one supervision code, also called the trade mode. The code fixes the duty treatment, the statistics category, and the documentary conditions, which is why it cannot be split across a single filing.
| Code | Meaning | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| 2700 | Exhibition goods | Goods imported or exported purely for display at a fair |
| 2600 | Temporary inward and outward goods | Goods displayed and also used, or held for another temporary purpose |
| 4561 | Returned goods | Goods sent back for quality or specification reasons |
| 1300 | Goods for repair | Goods entering for repair and later re-export, not returns |
| 9500 | Follow-up duty on royalties | Reporting a royalty payment made after the goods cleared |
Alongside it sits the levy nature field. Goods under a duty-exemption certificate use the nature stated on the certificate; goods without one use the entry that matches the actual situation in the levy nature code table. For purely temporary business the usual entry is 299, other statutory, and 101, general levy, applies only when duty is actually payable. The levy field then records whether a guarantee is required: 3 for full exemption, 6 for a cash deposit, 7 for a letter of guarantee.
Export control is checked at the same point. The Single Window now runs an automated screen over the declared goods and raises a prompt when an item may fall within a control list but has not been declared as such. The prompt is not advisory. Goods that answer a control description have to be declared in detail, and an incomplete answer carries legal liability for the shipper as well as blocking the release.
Four geographic fields, each answering a different question, and the definitions are narrower than they look.
Price terms then set the arithmetic of the rest. CIF, code 1, and FOB, code 3, are mandatory even for goods with no physical crossing of the border: imports are declared CIF, exports FOB. Freight, insurance and miscellaneous charges are then filled to match. Insurance covers the export leg after loading. Miscellaneous charges capture what sits outside the invoice price and must be added or deducted for valuation, such as commission, brokerage and rebates.
This block decides the duty rate, the licence requirement, and whether the goods can be valued at the declared price. Customs states the requirement in four words: specific name, complete elements.
A generic name is not acceptable. Parts, accessories, a batch, and similar words are rejected as descriptions. A pump has to be declared as a centrifugal pump or a gear pump. Where the goods carry a brand, the brand is part of the name, not an optional extra in the specification field.
| Element | Why customs needs it |
|---|---|
| Brand and model | Separates otherwise identical goods and feeds the brand-authorisation check |
| Composition or content percentage | Drives classification for chemicals, metals and textiles |
| Dimensions and weight per unit | Supports the quantity conversion and the valuation check |
| Function and use | Distinguishes machinery and instruments in the same heading |
| Technical parameters | Separates grades within one HS line |
| Item or part number | Ties the line to the invoice and the technical file |
Quantity has its own consistency rules. Goods under processing trade must match the quantity registered in the processing manual. Goods claiming preferential treatment under a trade agreement must match the certificate of origin. Where a statutory unit differs from the commercial unit, the conversion has to be shown, and gases are converted to volume at standard conditions rather than declared by cylinder weight.
Nowhere is the specification field stricter than on goods subject to anti-dumping duty, because the duty rate follows the manufacturer, not the product.
Carbon steel fasteners are the standard example. They map to 7318.12.00, 7318.14.00 and six further lines, but the measures do not reach every product in those lines: screws for fixing railway track are outside, and so are screws and bolts with a shank diameter not exceeding six millimetres. Shank diameter therefore has to be in the specification field, along with the material, whether stainless or carbon steel, before the exclusion can be judged.
Where the measure applies, the specification field has to append, in a fixed order after the normal elements: the original manufacturer's Chinese name, its English name, the anti-dumping rate, and whether a price undertaking applies. The rate is written as a decimal, so 26 percent is entered as 0.26, and the undertaking flag is one for yes and zero for no.
The attached documents follow from the same logic. Anti-dumping goods need a certificate of origin, and goods from a country or region covered by the measure also need the manufacturer's own invoice. Where the goods were bought through a trader in a third country, the commercial invoice has to state the manufacturer name and the manufacturer's invoice number. If origin cannot be established, customs applies the highest rate in the measure, which for carbon steel fasteners is 26 percent. The relevant announcement for EU carbon steel fasteners is MOFCOM Announcement 2022 No. 17.
Three yes-or-no items sit behind a single button in the filing system, and they decide how customs reads the price.
Royalties cause the most argument because payment timing changes where the money goes on the form. Paid together with the goods, the royalty is not added to the total value but entered in the miscellaneous charges field, and the system then applies the same duty rate and exchange rate as the goods. Paid in instalments after clearance, the royalty confirmation answers yes at import. Each payment is then reported within 30 days under supervision code 9500, carrying the original goods name and HS code, a legal quantity of 0.1, the payment amount as the total value, and gross and net weight of 1.
Whether a royalty counts at all turns on one test: is it a condition of sale? A trademark licence that has to be paid for the goods to be bought at the agreed price belongs in the value. A brand applied after import, where the fee has nothing to do with the imported goods, does not. Keep the licence agreement and the payment records, because the burden of showing which one applies falls on the importer.
Filing can now start earlier. For eligible exports the advance declaration window runs to seven days before the goods reach the supervision area, up from three, provided the pre-stowage manifest data exists and the core elements of name, specification and quantity are already fixed. The practical effect is that a booking can be declared before the container is loaded, and released as it arrives.
| Failure | What happens | How to prevent it |
|---|---|---|
| Generic goods name | Manual review, missed cut-off | Name the product type, brand and model |
| Manufacturer name not matching the announcement | Wrong anti-dumping rate, penalty | Check the announcement against the invoice line by line |
| Royalty not reported | Back duty plus 0.05 percent per day | Answer the royalty confirmation from the licence agreement, not from habit |
| Returns declared as goods for repair | Duty paid on import is not refunded | Use 4561 for returns, and state defective quality or specification not matching |
| Container details missing or inconsistent | Terminal will not accept the release | Enter container numbers before the entry is submitted |
| Gross weight below net weight | Rejected entry | Check the logic of weight and value fields before submission |
| Code typed from memory | Rejected entry | Select from the code table so the name is generated by the system |
| Temporary goods remark in the wrong format | Rejected entry | Use category, date, approval number in brackets |
One more item is worth flagging because it changes in 2026. Used vehicle exports must be declared with the name in the fixed form of used, brand, displacement, model, so a two-litre sedan reads as used plus brand plus 2.0L plus sedan. Every unit needs its full 17-character VIN, overflow goes into the remarks field, and the export licence runs one licence per batch with a maximum of twenty vehicles. From January 2026 the requirements tighten further under the joint notice from the four ministries.
Most of the fields above are filled by the shipper or the broker. Seven things can only come from the buyer, and a declaration that starts without them will stall.
105, across four parts: the header, the goods lines, the container details, and the attached documents. Customs groups them into nine blocks for training purposes, and the errors cluster inside those blocks rather than across the form.
It is the system-generated identifier for the accepted entry. The first four digits are the office code, the next four the year, the ninth digit shows direction with one for imports and zero for exports, and the last nine are a serial. Nothing types it by hand, but it is the number to quote in any follow-up.
The Chinese entity that signed and executed the trade contract, identified by its 18-digit unified social credit code. When signing and execution fall to different companies, the executor is declared. The producer or seller field is separate, and it is the party that claims the export refund.
Because the specification field drives three outcomes at once: the HS classification, the anti-dumping or licence check, and the valuation. A generic name passes the system but moves the entry to manual review, which usually costs a sailing.
On goods subject to anti-dumping duty the rate attaches to the manufacturer, not to the product. The specification field has to append the manufacturer's Chinese and English names, the rate as a decimal such as 0.26, and a price-undertaking flag. Without origin evidence customs applies the highest rate in the measure.
No. One declaration carries one bill of lading number, so a shipment that produces several bills is split into several declarations. Consolidated cargo is where this is most often discovered late, because the forwarder issues one bill per house shipment.
Eligible exports can be declared up to seven days before the goods reach the supervision area, extended from three, provided the pre-stowage manifest data exists and the core elements are confirmed. That allows release on arrival rather than after it.
4561, returned goods. Filing them as 1300, goods for repair, is a frequent error and means the duty and VAT paid on import are not refunded. The reason has to read defective quality or specification not matching, with the return agreement and any third-party test report attached.
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