Jun 23, 2016 - The Latest on China and Complementary Medicines. Changes in China's e-Commerce space regarding Australian
23 June 2016
The Latest on China and Complementary Medicines Changes in China’s e-Commerce space regarding Australian complementary medicine products have created significant uncertainty over the past two months since the Chinese authorities announced increased regulatory control and the introduction of taxation for bonded imports. While a positive list has been issued that identifies import requirements and provides a framework for taxation to align cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) taxation rates with general imports, it is unclear what the full implications of the positive list is at this stage. A range of products were excluded from the initial announcement issued by the Chinese authorities, however subsequent announcements extended the positive list to include an array of complementary medicine products (health foods), along with infant formula, medical devices and cosmetics. Although the regulatory and taxation changes initially had a negative impact on ecommerce sales figures, it should be noted that building online retail is a significant element of the Chinese government’s economic growth plan. To balance this growth policy, officials are working to increase control over online import arrangements to improve the efficiency and consistency of processes, standardise taxation with general imports, as well as improve quality controls for consumer protection and confidence. May 2017 will see the end of the 12 month grace period, at which time health foods will need to comply with the new import arrangements, however given the requirements around registration and customs clearance, this is still a fairly limited amount of time to ensure that supply can continue once the grace period ends.
