China Shippers’ Association

Background

China Shippers’ Association was established in 1989 with the approval of the former Ministry of Foreign Economic Cooperation and Trade， and registered at the Ministry of Civil Administration of the People’s Republic of China, and is entitled to legal person status according to the law. Now the Ministry of Commerce is in charge of this association.

The nature of this Association is a national trade organization engaging in reform, development, study and practice of foreign economic cooperation and trade enterprises in compliance with “the Law of Foreign Trade of the People’s Republic of China”, composed of various import and export enterprises of foreign trade, foreign economic cooperation, industry trade and science trade as principal parts  as well as experts, scholars and  men of insight,. This association is not a profit-oriented organization, and will not be engaged in the activities which are not related to its coordination work and are in conflict with the interests of its members.

Objectives

To publicize and implement the government’s laws, regulations and policies on foreign economic and trade,  communicate with government departments and enterprises, act as advisor and assistant of the government departments , and serve the import and export enterprises all over China; guide and assist the import and export enterprises to establish the modern enterprise system in accordance with the rule of our socialist market economy; train the professional management forces of import and export enterprises so as to promote the development of foreign economic and trade.

The scope of activity of this Association: surrounding the general tasks and requirements of the developments of foreign economic and trade timely reflect the requirements of import and export enterprises and members, safeguard their lawful rights and interests, and give guidance to the work of the local associations.

Functions

To carry out the theoretic analyses and investigations by surrounding the macro-policies of the government departments, hot issues, etc.,  provide the government authorities with the results of research and proposals of resolving the problems of the enterprises, the foundation of decision-making, etc.

To organize the training classes of entrepreneurs in various forms and topics, improve the management level of the enterprises; timely reflect the requirements of import and export enterprises and members, safeguard their lawful rights and interests.

To summarize and publicize the advanced experiences of the enterprises, convene periodically meetings of experience exchange and meetings, commend the excellent enterprises and entrepreneur, and use the model to promote the reform  and management of enterprises.

To strengthen the quality control of import and export enterprises, publicize and popularize the internationalized standards, offer consultation service for the establishment of “quality enterprise guarantee system”; and carry out the work of evaluation and authentication of quality enterprise.

To have dialogues with the liner conferences, discussion agreements, shipping companies, port authorities, terminal operators, forwarding agents, shipping agents, keep in close contact with the management departments of customs, commodity and quarantine inspection, tax collection, foreign exchange, etc., so as to cancel or decrease the unreasonable charges through dialogues and consultations, hence to lower the cost of foreign trade and improve the international competitiveness.

Timely reflect the problems and requirements occurring from customs clearance. In order to adapt to the requirement of the WTO, organize the import and export enterprises to intensify the study of WTO and other relevant international rules, standardize the trade documents, organize various professional training of documentation for transportation, declaration of customs, storage, warehouse, etc.,  organize seminars and meetings of exchange of special topics so as to improve the self-guarding capability of the enterprises.

To expand the exchange and cooperation with foreign shippers’ associations, especially the shippers’ associations of Asia, and negotiate with freight transport organizations such as international shipping conferences on unreasonable freight rates and surcharges or other extra charges so as to stop the sudden prices increase and unreasonable charges, and safeguard the rational international freight standard.

To compile and publish the two magazines-“China Business Monthly” and “International Advertisement”, and publicize the advanced management experiences of domestic and international enterprises and the important information of foreign economic and trade. And to organize academic theory study, summarize and publicize the experiences of the excellent enterprises of import and export in the country.

To run the website of China Foreign Trade Enterprises, offer consultation services for attracting investments and on-line trade cooperation for the import and export enterprises, and publish advertisement on the web page for the members of the Association free of charge.

To sponsor national and international exhibitions and trade fair both at home and broad, introduce the advanced technologies, equipments, materials, etc. into China and popularize them. And to organize the Chinese advertisement industry to take part in the international advertisement activities.

Sponsor the management research and academic exchange of foreign trade transportation, storage and warehousing enterprises. Strengthen the industry management, coordinate and solve the problems emerged in the management of foreign trade transportation, storage and warehousing enterprises.

To expand and strengthen the exchange and cooperation with other domestic and international specialized social economic organizations, perform the work entrusted by the Ministry of Commerce or responsibilities requested by the members.

The highest organ of supreme power of this Association is the General Assembly of its members, the Council of this Association is the executive organ of the General Assembly. The president directs the day-to day work.
The Association has 13 branches:

1. Administration Office,
2. Member Department,
3. Accounting  Department,
4. Exhibition Department,
5. Quality Department,
6. Education and Training Department,
7. Science & Technology Department,
8. Consultation Department,
9. Shippers’ Department,
10. Magazine of China Business monthly,
11. Magazine of China Advertisement,
12. Working Committee of the Storage, warehousing and Transportation,
13. Beifang Center of Film & Television.