To speed up customs clearance and advance trade facilitation, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has announced new “Operating Guidelines for the Trial Non-intrusive Inspection of Container Goods” that allows non-intrusive inspection of import and export goods. Under this system, containers (or goods) will be scanned by machine, producing an image that can be used to distinguish any abnormality inside. The new operation will begin next March, on a six-month trial basis, at Keelung, Taichung, and Kaohsiung harbors.

The Directorate General of Customs points out that the use of non-intrusive inspection will save on container shipping costs and reduce the possibility of damage to cargo during the moving process; it will also shorten the time needed to clear customs, thus heightening administrative efficiency. The scope of the new inspection procedure will encompass single, large units of cargo such as big items of imported furniture, with the machines being able to directly detect anything that might be hidden in them. Non-intrusive inspection will not be used, however, with containers holding a large variety of items.

    In practice, the non-intrusive inspection of containers can be carried out during either the manifest or declaration phases. In the manifest phase, when the shipper receives notification from Customs that non-intrusive inspection has been approved for import, transshipment, or transit containers or goods (CX), the shipper can take the notification together with the goods to be inspected to a designated non-intrusive inspection station at an assigned time. Customs notes that once the non-intrusive inspection is completed during the manifest phase and no anomaly has been found, in principle the goods will not need to undergo non-intrusive inspection again during the declaration phase. This will shorten the time needed to clear customs.

For non-intrusive inspection during the declaration phase (C3X), customs valuation and collection must have been carried out first and, once the containers (goods) have been inspected and no anomaly found, the consignee can take delivery. To save time, the consignee needs not submit a written declaration. Once the consignment has passed non-intrusive inspection, Customs will notify the declarant, the warehouse or container terminal where the cargo is located, and the non-intrusive inspection station. If export goods need to undergo non-intrusive inspection during the declaration phase, the inspection will be done after the goods are released but before they are loaded on board.

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