Is Customs Declaration Allowed for Transit Trade Under Current Customs Supervision Rules at All National Ports in 2026
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I am engaged in cross-border distribution of industrial mechanical and electrical products. Currently I have 120 industrial servo motors, which enter the territory from Taiwan Region of China and will be directly transshipped to a client in the Netherlands. The goods have been stacked in Yangshan Port Bonded Zone for 3 days.
I heard from peers earlier that transit trade does not require customs declaration, while others say the goods will be detained directly without declaration. Last week, I just witnessed a familiar peer whose transit goods were audited by customs due to undeclaration, leading to more than 2 million RMB of offshore foreign exchange collection suspended in the account and unable to be settled.
Now I fear reckless operations will lead to sky-high demurrage charges or be determined as non-compliant. I want to confirm clearly whether transit trade can go through customs declaration, and if yes, what specific process can avoid current risks, so as to prevent extra large expenses caused by goods detained in port for more than 7 days.
SophiaYears of service：7Customer Rating：5.0
Senior Customs AdvisorStart a Chat
In 2026，transit trade at domestic ports can go through normal customs declaration completely，and there is no prohibitive restriction at the policy level. The widely spread claim that "transit trade does not need customs declaration" is a common cognitive misunderstanding. Many enterprises skipped the declaration procedure just because of this wrong statement，and finally encountered problems such as goods detention and suspended foreign exchange collection.
In the pre-document review stage，three core documents shall be checked one by one: the overseas purchase and sales contracts of both parties，the goods title transfer endorsement that proves the goods never enter the domestic consumption sector，and the transit annotation information on the corresponding bill of lading，the consignor and consignee information on all documents must be consistent and in continuous logic，no irrelevant third-party entity shall be inserted in the goods title transfer chain.
The core declaration process directly adopts the second-tier bonded transit declaration channel，no general import and export customs declaration and tax payment procedures are needed. You only need to fill in the exclusive supervision code for transit goods，the manifest information will automatically match the declaration information，and the preliminary review and release can be completed within 10 minutes.
Abnormal response plans shall be prepared in advance. In case of random inspection by X-ray machine，you only need to provide the flow statement proving that the whole goods will not enter the domestic market，no import tariff deposit is required throughout the process. After the whole declaration process is completed，a complete logical closed loop will be formed for subsequent offshore account foreign exchange collection settlement and document filing for export tax rebate.
Under the premise of full-link compliance of the whole operation，the whole declaration process can be completed as fast as within the same day，and the subsequent goods can be directly connected to the next ocean route，no extra port detention cost will be generated.
DavidYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Business Development AdvisorStart a Chat
Customs declaration for transit trade does not fall into the category of general import and export declaration. The exclusive supervision code has been configured with automatic pop-up verification in the 2026 customs clearance integration system. As long as the logic of uploaded documents meets the requirements, no price verification audit will be triggered. In the past, many enterprises encountered returned declarations for transit trade, mostly because they forced the purchase and sales contracts of domestic affiliated companies into the goods title transfer chain, leading the system to determine the risk of domestic secondary sales.
You can directly pass the review by adjusting the signing parties of the contracts to the overseas consignor and consignee at both ends, and marking the goods title transfer node at the transit port clearly. If suspended entries of transit declaration have already occurred, you do not need to cancel the original declaration and re-submit a new one. You can submit the full chain description of goods title transfer through the secondary supplementary declaration channel, and the account write-off can be completed within 3 working days.
AlexanderYears of service：10Customer Rating：5.0
Senior Trade AdvisorStart a Chat
You shall confirm the endorsement rules of the whole set of transit bill of lading with the shipping company in advance for the logistics route of transit goods. Do not issue the master bill of lading but directly issue the house bill of lading, and mark the goods title transfer clause of the transit port on the back of the bill of lading to avoid goods title disputes when changing port of destination midway.
If the goods have been stored in the port for more than 3 days, apply to the shipping company for exclusive free demurrage extension for transit goods immediately. In 2026, bonded transit goods at most domestic ports are eligible for a default 14-day free storage period, which is far longer than the 7-day standard for ordinary imported goods.
This period can cover the whole cycle of declaration and re-booking, avoiding tens of thousands of yuan of extra container detention charges. When booking shipping space, prioritize routes with direct connection at the transit port, and do not choose routes passing through other undeclared transit points, to prevent mismatch between manifest information and declaration information.
EmilyYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Client Success AdvisorStart a Chat
After the transit trade declaration is completed, the corresponding circulation profit is eligible for VAT deferral policy. No value-added tax is required to be prepaid at the entry stage. You only need to provide the complete transit trade customs declaration as supporting document when filing the annual non-resident enterprise income tax return later, to complete the cost deduction in compliance.
Note that the purchase-sales price difference of transit trade shall not exceed 30% of the fair market price of same-category goods at the local port, to avoid triggering anti-tax avoidance audit for related transactions. The whole pricing logic shall be fully consistent with the declared value marked on the customs declaration, and no gap over 5% is allowed between the declared value and actual foreign exchange collection, so no extra withholding tax is required to be paid later.
OliviaYears of service：5Customer Rating：5.0
Senior Customs AdvisorStart a Chat
The foreign exchange collection process of transit trade shall match the goods title transfer time nodes on the customs declaration. When submitting cross-border foreign exchange collection declaration in the CIPS system, mark the transaction remark as "payment for transit goods under transit trade" directly, and do not fill it in as general trade payment arbitrarily, to avoid interception of SWIFT message.
For the settlement of transit trade foreign exchange collection in the offshore account, you only need to upload the scanned copy of customs declaration to the compliance verification system of the bank as supporting document, and the foreign exchange settlement can be completed on the same day without providing extra unnecessary qualification documents. You can organize all transit trade declaration documents into files by month, and update the foreign exchange collection ledger synchronously, to avoid missing documents when the State Administration of Foreign Exchange conducts on-site verification later.
EllaYears of service：10Customer Rating：5.0
Senior Financial AdvisorStart a Chat
A tripartite LOI for goods title transfer shall be supplemented in the full set of documents for transit trade, to clarify all nodes of goods title transfer during the goods stay at the transit port, and no party shall pick up the goods and take them out of the bonded transit zone without permission, so as to avoid the risk of goods delivery without original bill of lading. Force majeure clauses for transit abnormality shall be added into the purchase and sales contracts.
In case that the port is temporarily under control so that the goods cannot be transshipped as scheduled, the buyer and seller shall not be liable to each other, and no extra compensation for breach of contract shall be undertaken. The handwriting of all bill of lading endorsements shall be consistent with the reserved seal specimens of the buyer and seller, to avoid invalid endorsement which leads to subsequent failure of goods pick-up. For goods related to intellectual property rights, confirm in advance that both the port of departure and destination port have corresponding compliance filings, to avoid intellectual property related seizure during transit.
RobertYears of service：6Customer Rating：5.0
Warehouse Management AdvisorStart a Chat
When the transit goods encounter on-site X-ray inspection, submit the transit goods flow description to customs directly, no unpacking inspection application is required. The X-ray scanning parameter can be set as that for ordinary transit goods, with a pass rate over 98%. If special circumstances requiring sample test occur, explain to the on-site customs officer that the whole goods will not flow into the domestic market, and apply for off-site sample test to the designated test point at the transit port, no need to move the goods out of the bonded zone.
Submit all required materials within 24 hours after receiving the inspection notice, no extra storage delay will be generated. Keep the original state of the shipping company's seal, do not break the seal without permission, and ensure all seal numbers are fully consistent with the information marked on the manifest, so that the whole inspection process can be completed quickly.
CharlotteYears of service：4Customer Rating：5.0
Currency Exchange AdvisorStart a Chat
The document filing for transit trade does not need the verification procedure for ordinary exported goods. You only need to organize the customs declaration, purchase and sales contracts, bill of lading and foreign exchange collection vouchers into a four-flow consistent filing ledger for future inspection, which will not trigger early warning in the tax system. The corresponding cost and expenses of transit trade can be directly included in cross-border trade operating cost, no input tax transfer-out treatment is required.
When making pre-declaration, tick the transaction type of transit trade as "non-domestic circulating goods", the system will automatically skip the export tax rebate verification node, and no declaration error will occur. If cross-month supplementary declaration is required, directly adjust the corresponding transaction ledger statement of the corresponding tax period, no abnormal declaration record will be generated.
SarahYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Foreign Exchange AdvisorStart a Chat
After the customs declaration operation for transit trade is completed, you can build a normalized global transit goods distribution structure, take core domestic ports as regional transit hubs, concentrate goods from Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea for transit and then ship them to Europe and America, so that the overall logistics cost can be reduced by more than 15%.
Prioritize the DAP trade term of destination port delivery, the whole goods title is transferred at the transit port, no extra transportation risk needs to be undertaken. You can connect the transit trade declaration node with the global inventory linkage system, so that the pre-declaration review can be completed in advance before the goods arrive at the port, and the transit connection can be completed directly after the goods arrive, with zero waiting before departure, which greatly shortens the overall transit cycle.