Customs Clearance Fee

Customs Clearance Fee refers to the agency service fee charged by a customs broker or freight forwarder to the consignor or consignee for customs declaration services when import or export goods pass through customs supervision. Its core is the labor remuneration collected by the agency enterprise for handling declaration, inspection, release, and other procedures with customs. It usually does not include customs duties, value-added tax, and other taxes levied by customs, nor does it include terminal handling charges, document fees, and other charges collected by ports or shipping companies. In terms of usage scenarios, the customs clearance fee is commonly seen in cost allocation under trade terms such as FOB and CIF: if the seller is responsible for export customs declaration, the export customs clearance fee is borne by the seller; if the buyer is responsible for import customs declaration, the import customs clearance fee is borne by the buyer. Precautions include: the customs clearance fee may fluctuate depending on the type of goods, complexity of declaration, and different ports, and it is often confused with 'clearance fee,' but strictly speaking, clearance fee covers a broader scope including customs declaration, inspection, warehousing, etc.; in addition, in buy-order customs declaration or container-inclusive customs declaration, the customs clearance fee may already be included in the total package price, which needs to be clarified in the contract. The difference from 'tariff' is that tariff is a tax levied by customs according to law, while the customs clearance fee is a service charge.