The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the General Administration of Customs (China Customs) published a draft revision of the Measures for the Administration of Gold and Gold Products Import and Export for public comment on 26 June 2026. Its revision explanation lists these changes, among others, to the Measures issued in 2015 and amended in 2020:
| Provision | 2015 Measures, in force | Draft of 26 June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Single-shipment permit | 40 working days from issue; one extension (Art. 17) | Three months |
| Repeat application | Application form and contract only, if other documents are unchanged (Art. 10) | Full filing at the first application each year |
| Applicant record | No relevant violation in two years (Arts. 8, 9) | No violation of customs, foreign-exchange, tax, AML/CFT, environmental or related rules in two years |
| Foreign-trade companies | Customs-certified enterprise, three-year tax record (Art. 9) | China Customs credit rating required; agent answers for preventing false transactions |
| Licensee breach | PBOC may suspend acceptance of its applications (Art. 24) | Suspension deleted; licence revocation added |
| Individuals | Rules to be set jointly by PBOC and China Customs (Art. 4) | Clause deleted; carriage or mail within a reasonable personal-use quantity needs no permit, under China Customs supervision |
China Customs clears a general-trade gold import only against a valid PBOC permit (Articles 3, 4 and 17), so the release instruction for bars sold from a Hong Kong or Singapore vault to a mainland importer is timed against that importer’s permit. Under the draft, a delivery rescheduled to any date within three months of issue clears on the same single-shipment permit. Under Article 17 as it stands, the holder can extend once, on a justified request lodged at least five working days before the 40 working days end. The record test reaches the importer’s foreign-exchange, tax and AML/CFT history and is repeated in full at its first application each year, so a mainland buyer’s standing as an importer is re-established annually. Where gold products enter through a foreign-trade company acting as agent, the permit is the agent’s, and the draft conditions it on the agent’s China Customs credit rating. Outside charitable donations, Articles 8 and 9 grant permits only to legal persons and other organisations, so an individual who collects bars in Hong Kong and carries them across the mainland border relies on the personal-use exemption alone.
The text is a consultation draft: comments closed on 26 July 2026, and the 2015 Measures as amended in 2020 remain in force until the PBOC and China Customs issue a revised version. What counts as a reasonable personal-use quantity is for China Customs to determine under Article 46 of the Customs Law, which limits articles carried or mailed across the border to personal use in reasonable quantities.