Inspection of international ships in China

Laws and Regulations

Chinese Law

Source: Ministry of Commerce Website, PRC

Procedures for Inspection of International Navigation Ships Entering and Exiting Ports of the People’s Republic of China

Tuesday, March 21, 1995 Posted: 14:38 BJT (0638 GMT)

(Valid From:1995.03.21)

Article 1 This set of procedures are formulated for the purpose of strengthening the administration of the international navigation ships entering and exiting the ports of the People’s Republic of China to facilitate their entry and exit and improve the uses of the ports.

Article 2 Upon the entry in or exit from ports of the People’s Republic of China international navigation ships (hereinafter referred as the ships) as well as their crew and the passengers, cargoes and other goods they carry shall be inspected by organs stipulated in Article 3 of this set of procedures according to this set of procedures except stipulated by law of the State Council for other ways of inspection.

Article 3 The inspection shall be carried out by harbour superintendent department of China (HSD), China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC), border checking departments (BCD) of health quarantine departments (HQD) of China and China’s quarantine departments of animal and plant (QAP), which are referred to hereinafter as the inspection organs.

Article 4 The inspection organs carry out their inspection according to relevant laws and regulations and deal with the acts of violating laws and administrative regulations.

HSD is responsible for calling other inspection organs to participate in associated meetings for the study of related problems arising from the inspection of the ships upon their entry in and exit from China’s ports.

Article 5 When a ship enters and exits China’s ports, its owner or agent should go through formalities in line with relevant stipulations the procedures. The personnel of inspection organs shall not go on board of the ship for inspections except in the cases stipulated in the second clause of Article 10 and Article 11 of the procedures or in other special cases.

In going through all the formalities concerning the entry in or exit from China’s ports, owner or agent of the ship concerned should accurately fill in the forms and provide related certificates and data in line with the stipulations of the inspection organs.

Article 6 The owner or the agent of a ship should fill in an “Application Form for International Navigation Ships Entering and Exiting Chinese Ports” 7 days before the arrival of the ship to the port (before exiting the previous port if the voyage takes less than 7 days), and report to the HSD of the arriving port for approval.

The owner or the agent of a ship which is to enter the Yangtze River should fill in an “Application Form for International Navigation Ships Entering and Exiting Chinese Ports” 7 days before the ship is expected to arrive at the Shanghai port (before exiting the previous port if the voyage takes less than 7 days), and report to the HSD for approval.

Article 7 The owner or the agent of a ship should report the time of arrival, the site of anchorage, and the plan for anchoring and moving as well as related information about the crew and passengers to the inspection organs concerned 24 hours before its arrival at the port (before exiting the previous port if the voyage takes less than 24 hours).

Article 8 The owner or the agent who has not gone through the formalities of entering the port before the arrival of the ship should go through the formalities at the inspection organs within 24 hours after its arrival.

If the anchoring time is less than 24 hours, the owner or the agent may, with the agreement of the inspection organ, go through the formalities of exiting the port while going through the formalities of entering the port.

Article 9 If the formalities of entering the port have been gone through by the owner or the agent of a ship the people concerned can move and cargoes can be loaded on or out of the ship as soon as the arrival of the ship to the port.

If formalities of entering the port have not been gone through by the owner or the agent of a ship upon its arrival of a port all people must not move and cargoes and other goods must not be loaded on and out of the ship after its arrival except inspection personnel and navigators; if the previous entering and exiting port of the ship is a Chinese port, people may leave and go on board the ship and cargoes and other goods may be loaded and unloaded after its arrival, but the owner or the agent should immediately go through the formalities of entering the port.

Article 10 The HQDs carry out telecommunications quarantine. The owner or the agent of a ship with a sanitation certificate may apply to the HQDs for telecommunications quarantine.

HQDs should carry out quarantine at the site of the anchorage if the ships come from epidemic areas and ships carrying people who have or are suspected to have contracted infectious diseases or bodies of those who have died of non-accidental causes or of unclear causes, or ships without sanitation certificate or with an expired sanitation certificate only or the sanitation conditions not up to the required standards.

Article 11 QDAPs may carry out the quarantine at the site of the anchorage if the ships or animals and plants, animal and plant products or other goods carried by the ship come from animal and plant epidemic areas that need quarantine

Article 12 The ship owner or the agent of a ship should go through the necessary formalities of exiting at the inspection organs within 4 hours before the ship exits the port (or at the time of entering the port if the anchoring time is less than 4 hours). The relevant inspection organs should notify this by signing the “Ship Exiting Formalities Certificate”; and the owner or the agent should go to the HQD to apply for an exiting license with the certificate and other certificates and data as required by the HQD.

Article 13 If any changes happen or the ship does not exit the port after getting the license, the owner or the agent should report to the HQD, which will discuss with other inspection organs to decide whether it is necessary for the owner or the agent to go through the exiting formalities again.

Article 14 For the ships that have a regular shipping route and fixed crew and come and go one or more than one voyage, the owner or the agent may apply in a written form to the HQD to go through the formalities of regular entering and exiting China’s ports. The HQD concerned which handles the application will discuss with other inspection organs to decide whether to approve it or not, and after their approval, the HQD will issue a regular exiting license valid for 7 days.

Article 15 The inspection organs and their personnel must implement the procedures impartially, scrupulously abide by their duties, and carry out the inspections and handle the applications for entering and exiting Chinese ports in time.

Article 16 The following related terms of the procedures can be defined as:

(1) International navigation ships are referred to the ships of foreign origin which enter and exit China’s ports and the ships of Chinese origin which sail international navigation routes;

(2) Ports are referred to the Chinese ports which have been approved by the Chinese government for international navigation ships to enter and exit; and

(3) The ship owner is referred to the owner or the operator of the ship.

Article 17 This set of procedures will be effective as of the date of its promulgation. “Regulations on Joint Inspection of Entering and Exiting Ships” issued by the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Public Security.