Free Trade Zones to Allow Outsourced Processing and Monthly Customs Reporting

At a meeting held on June 30, the Task Force of the Free Trade Zone Coordinating Committee discussed a relaxation of outsourced processing by free trade zone enterprises and  a "monthly reporting" customs clearance system. The aim is to increase the added value of free trade zone goods, speed up the flow of goods, and expand the attraction of free trade zones for investment.

　　Vice chairman Thomas Yeh of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) indicates that the main target of investment promotion for the free trade zones (FTZs) that have been approved so far is international logistics operators, and that there is a need to set up a cooperative production and marketing mechanism for supply chains that include enterprises both within FTZs and within the customs territory.  As a result of discussions with organizations represented at the meeting, besides manufacturing industry, logistics industry will be allowed to commission the processing of export products to enterprises outside FTZs. The Ministry of Finance has finished revising the regulations governing customs clearance for free trade zone goods, and will promulgate them according to administrative procedures.

　　In regard to the simplified customs reporting system between free trade zones and domestic taxable and bonded areas, the Directorate General of Customs has proposed a concrete program, following several months of discussions, to allow manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, assembling and sorting operators to apply for monthly customs-clearance reporting system. To make the system as comprehensive as possible, the Ministry of Finance referred to the monthly reporting systems of tax-bonded areas—export processing zones, science parks, and logistics centers—and formulated concrete enabling measures appropriate to free trade zones. These measures have been submitted to the CEPD and will be discussed at the next meeting of the Coordinating Committee.

　　As for the hiring of foreign workers by logistics operators in free trade zones, Premier Frank Hsieh has moved to reduce operating costs and boost the willingness of companies to move into the zones by instructing the Council of Labor Affairs to study the feasibility of opening up the hiring of foreign workers (and to establish criteria for doing so) by distribution, freight forwarding, cargo (and container) terminal, and warehousing operators.

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