Manifest Management: The Key to Ensuring Smooth Customs Clearance for Goods

As a key component of the clearance process, manifest management involves multiple stages such as cargo transportation, declaration, and inspection. So, what exactly is a manifest? What role does it play in cargo clearance? This article will explore the details of manifest operations.

A manifest, formally referred to as an inbound and outbound transport vehicle manifest, is a crucial document that records the cargo, items, and passenger information carried by inbound and outbound transport vehicles. It can be in either paper or electronic format, including original manifests, pre-loading manifests, and loading manifests.

As a statutory document, manifests possess the following three key characteristics:

(1) A carrier of cargo, item, and passenger information;
(2) Must be related to inbound and outbound transport vehicles;
(3) The transport vehicle must have inbound and outbound activity.

Manifest transmission involves multiple entities, including:

(1) Manifest transmitters: such as transport vehicle operators, freight forwarding companies, and shipping agency companies;
(2) Obligated parties for transmitting related electronic data: such as operators of customs supervision sites, tally departments, and export cargo shippers.

All of them are required to transmit manifests and related electronic data to customs within the stipulated time limits.

For import and export manifests, the transmission times of electronic data are determined by the transmission times of the original manifests primary data and the pre-loading manifests primary data, respectively.

(1) Transit cargo: Must transmit inbound and outbound manifests and related electronic data in accordance with the Manifest Management Measures.
(2) Transshipment cargo: Must transmit original manifests, pre-loading manifests, loading manifests, and tally reports, among other data.
(3) Through cargo: Manifest and related electronic data will not be transmitted temporarily.

Manifest operations involve multiple participating entities, all of which must be registered with customs. Any relevant changes require timely registration amendment procedures.