General Administration of Customs

The General Administration of Customs (GAC) is an institution directly under the State Council of China, responsible for unified management of customs affairs nationwide. It oversees inbound and outbound supervision, tariff collection, anti-smuggling, compilation of customs statistics, and other customs operations. In foreign trade, this term is commonly used in policy announcements, regulatory interpretations, statistical data citations, and compliance operations. For example, enterprises need to follow GAC announcements to obtain the latest requirements on commodity classification, rules of origin, tax reduction and exemption policies, etc. Note: The GAC is a policy-making and regulatory body, different from specific port customs (e.g., Shanghai Customs), which handles front-line enforcement; its functions are also clearly distinguished from those of the Ministry of Commerce, the State Taxation Administration, etc. Foreign trade practitioners should regularly check the GAC official website to ensure compliance in declaration, tax payment, license management, etc., and avoid late declaration, fines, or credit downgrading due to misunderstandings of policies.