On 21.11.2018, Premier of the State Council, Li Keqiang, announced the extension of Cross-Border-E-Commerce (CBEC) beyond 31.12.2018. CBEC enables companies to sell certain products (e.g. cosmetics) to customers in China on dedicated online platforms without NMPA (former NMPA) certificate. Moreover, CBEC experimental zones were extended from 15 to 37 cities, such as Beijing, Shenyang, Nanjing, Wuhan, Xi’an and Xiamen. 63 new items were added into the “CBEC retail import list”, containing those products, which are not subject to import tariffs and solely require 70% of the applicable VAT and consumption taxes. Furthermore, the single purchase limit was raised from RMB 2,000 to RMB 5,000 and the annual transaction limit was raised from RMB 20,000 to RMB 26,000 per person per year.
