Customs officers count smuggled luxury watches seized in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, on August 16, 2018. (Photo: IC)

International Customs Day on January 26 concluded by hailing the achievements of China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) in cracking down on smuggling.

In 2018, the GAC made cracking down on foreign waste smuggling its top task in order to battle this emerging trend. Over the past year, customs authorities handled 481 cases of foreign waste smuggling, and registered 1.55 million tons of various types of waste. 

Imports of solid waste dropped by 46.5 percent in 2018, according to Xinhua News Agency, which said that the continuous crackdown was effectively safeguarding China's environmental interests.

At Shanghai's Pudong International Airport, a total of 164 pieces of ivory products were seized by Shanghai customs from 17 passengers who illegally carried ivory products into China.

The year of 2018 witnessed five rounds of intense crackdowns on solid waste smuggling, in which 12 criminal cases were solved and measures taken against 34 suspects. 

A total of 11,700 tons of solid waste were seized and 3,363 tons from 59 batches of solid waste were successfully sent back out of China.

Since January 1, customs authorities at Shanghai Pudong International Airport have seized 17 cases of illegal ivory products from inbound passengers, a total of 164 pieces weighing about 4.34kg.

Customs authorities found a total of 24 pieces of ivory weighing 740 grams each carried by Chinese passengers on a single flight from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, where numerous ivory items are sold.

Shanghai customs stressed that inbound and outbound passengers are not allowed to carry ivory, tiger bone, rhino horn, pangolin scales or other endangered animal and plant products. 

According to the relevant regulations, unless the proper import and export permit certificates are held, any trade or transportation of ivory items and other endangered animal products into and out of the country are illegal and will be investigated.

In addition to ivory and imported waste, Chinese customs officials also seized a large number of fake and pirated goods in the past year.

The theme for the International Customs Day 2019 is "SMART borders for seamless Trade, Travel and Transport." 

At a time when the number of passengers and the volume of freight crossing borders is expected to increase exponentially, and technology has transformed the economic landscape in which customs is evolving, countries are encouraged to look at how they can best ensure the swift and smooth cross-border movement of goods, people and means of transport.