The customs in Xiamen, a port city that faces Taiwan across the Taiwan Straits, has fully prepared itself to embrace the first batch of zero-tariff fruits from Taiwan.

The customs has opened a special "green passageway" exclusively for fruit imports from Taiwan, to ensure timely customs clearance,quarantine inspection and delivery, a customs spokesman said in an interview Tuesday.

Upon the importers' request, the customs authority may also arrange its employees to work on public holidays to ensure timely consignment, he said.

To keep all fruits fresh, the customs allows fruits that need a cool atmosphere to be shipped to a customs nominated warehouse for the routine quarantine inspection, which is otherwise conducted upon arrival at the destination port, said the spokesman.

He said importers of zero-tariff Taiwan fruits have to present to the customs a "place of origin" certificate endorsed by one of the 11 Taiwan organizations recognized by the General Administration of Customs, including Taiwan provincial chambers of commerce and commerce chambers in Taipei and Kaohsiung.

The Chinese mainland scrapped import taxes on 15 kinds of Taiwanese fruits starting on Monday.

The fruits that enjoy the zero tariff treatment include pineapples, cherimoyas, pawpaws, carambolas, mangos, guavas, wax-apples, pinangs, grapefruits, jujubes, coconuts, loquats, plums, peaches, and persimmons.

Only fruits shipped to mainland ports from the Taiwan Island, Penghu Islands, Jinmen Islands and Mazu Island or by way of Hong Kong, Macao and Ishigaki-Shima of Japan are subject to the free tariff treatment, according to the General Administration of Customs.

The fruits that have been given the zero tariff treatment were imposed tariffs ranging from 10 percent to 25 percent.

The mainland imported Taiwanese fruits worth 1.34 million dollars in the first half of this year, up 42.1 percent from the corresponding period of last year.

The Xiamen customs alone has handled 18 shipments of Taiwanese fruits weighing 93 tons and valued at 98,000 US dollars since the first shipment arrived on May 28.

Source: Xinhua