National Customs Research Articles

Daqing Rural Experiential Tourism Project Development

Daqing City, as the resource city with petroleum industry as its main industry, it’s essential for its industrial structure adjustment and city transition to develop the experiencing tourist in rural area. On the basis of the elaboration of the rural experience tourism resources of the city of Daqing, ASEB analysis is conducted on the rural experience tourism resources of the city of Daqing to explore the principles, directions, contents and strategies of project development. The development direction of the rural experience tourism projects in Daqing City should first identify the development goal of best quality, and then have the diversified development route; The development of the project should focused on picking experiencing tourism project, high-tech agriculture experiencing project and national customs experiencing tourism project by taking advantage of the resources in Daqing; the development strategies should exactly position the market, fully excavate experience connotation, and enrich experience environment.

Collaborative health and enforcement operations on the quality of antimalarials and antibiotics in southeast Asia.

Counterfeit (or falsified) and substandard medicines pose a major public health risk. We describe the findings of Operation Storm I and II conducted in 2008–2009 to combat counterfeit medicines through partnership between national customs, Drug Regulatory Agencies (DRAs), and police in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Samples were obtained from seizures and market surveillance by national DRAs. Laboratory analysis using spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques and examination of packaging were performed. Ninety-three suspect antibiotics and 95 antimalarial samples were collected. Of the 93 antibiotics, 29 (31%) had % active pharmaceutical ingredient content (%API) < 85% or > 115% (including one counterfeit). Of the 95 antimalarials, 30 (32%) had %API < 85 > 115% API (including one counterfeit). A significant minority of samples, antimalarials (13%) and antibiotics (15%), were collected in plastic bags with minimal or no labeling. Of 20 ampicillin samples, 13 (65%) contained < 85% API (with one counterfeit containing additional amoxicillin). Of 34 oral artesunate samples, 7 (21%) contained %API out of the 85–115% range. Coordinated and synergistic partnership adopted by the participating countries, International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), World Health Organization (WHO), and laboratories facilitated a platform for discussions and intelligence sharing, helping to improve each participating country's capacity to combat poor-quality medicines.

Thoroughly Expose Ba Jin’s Counterrevolutionary True Face

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1. This is a reference to Liu Shaoqi. From the early 1960s until the Cultural Revolution, Liu was the Chairman of State and Chairman Mao’s designated successor; he was ultimately purged and humiliated during the Cultural Revolution. Liu died in prison of pneumonia due to maltreatment in 1969.2. See [Li] Feigan, “Liening—Gemingde pantu” (Lenin: Traitor to the Revolution), Xuehui supplement to Guofeng ribao (National Customs Daily), February 20, 1925. One could speculate that because this article in particular was used against Ba Jin in the Cultural Revolution, and due to its inflammatory title, it was made inaccessible to scholars when Ba Jin’s political supporters were in power, that is, before and after the Cultural Revolution. That is also perhaps why, despite the editors’ best efforts, we have been unable to locate that article to use in this issue.3. See the first selection in this issue, Li Feigan’s “On the Dictatorship of the Proletariat” (Makeside “wuchanjiejizhuanzheng”), which was originally published in Makesizhuyi de pochan (The Bankruptcy of Marxism) (Shanghai: Ziyou shudian, 1928), pp. 105–125.4. This refers to the Kuomintang (KMT) government’s signing of the so-called He–Umezu Agreement, under which the KMT agreed not to conduct party operations in Hebei Province, in effect starting to cede control of northern China to Japan.5. See Mao, “On Tactics Against Japanese Imperialism,” Selected Works (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1967), vol. 1, pp. 153–178.6. See the fifth selection in this issue, Ba Jin, “‘Afterword’ to Peter Kropotkin’s Blood of Freedom.” Unlike their other charges that he had a past association with anarchism and criticized both Marx and Lenin, which were basically true, one could argue that the authors are being very unfair to Ba Jin in claiming that he opposed the revolution and supported the Kuomintang. Even though he chose to live in areas under Kuomingtang control during the war rather than join the Communists in Yanan, Ba Jin continued to oppose capitalism and supported socialism and communism in general. Paul Pickowicz argued further that by depicting the dark and dreary side of life in the Kuomingtang-controlled areas during the war with Japan, Ba Jin “did a great deal to undermine the legitimacy of the nationalist state.” See Pickowicz, introduction to Cold Nights by Pa Chin [Ba Jin] (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2003), p. xxxii. Also, as we noted in the introduction to this issue, although it is true that he did criticize the tactics of the Communists in this afterword, unlike older Chinese anarchists, Ba Jin did stay in China after 1949.7. Ba Jin, trans., “Shehui biange yu jingji de gaizao” (Social Change and Economic Transformation), by Kropotkin (Kelupaotejin), Shijie yuekan 1 (May/June 1947): 9–10; really a translation of Kropotkin’s 1919 postscript to the Russian edition of his Words of a Rebel (St. Petersburg and Moscow: Golos-Trouda, 1921). See bibliography in the guest editors’ introduction to this issue.8. The authors are conveniently ignoring here the fact that Kropotkin wrote these comments long before Stalin’s rise to the top leadership posts in the Soviet Union, though it could certainly be true that the Nationalist regime during the Chinese civil war gladly reprinted Ba Jin’s translation for its own purposes.9. Refers to different kinds of problems related to poorly allocated production and consumption quotas, especially for consumer goods, under the nationalized industry of the Stalinist central planning system of the 1950s.10. Perhaps the authors failed to realize here they were admitting that Ba Jin’s critique resonated with readers around the country, even though they imply later in the essay that the resonance was with foreign countries.11. Chen Pixian was first party secretary of Shanghai until his purge in the “January Storm” of the Cultural Revolution in 1967; he rehabilitated in the mid-1970s.12. That is, “conciliation with imperialism, revisionism and reactionaries of all countries” and “annihilation of world revolution.” This refers to the Cultural Revolution charge that Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping led a supposed “pacifist” line in foreign policy that opposed the Maoist line of support for wars of national liberation abroad. See Michael B. Yahuda, “Chinese Foreign Policy After 1963: The Maoist Phases,” China Quarterly 36 (October/December 1968): 106. Many scholars writing since the Cultural Revolution, however, find little evidence that these leaders really acted in foreign policy matters without Mao’s approval.

„Wiara i polskość”. Powstanie i pierwsze lata działalności szkoły polskiej w Rzymie w czasie II wojny światowej

History of emigration is inscribed in the history of many nations and countries; in this history it is just the citizens who are outside their countries that cultivate their national identity, the language, customs and religion. These nations also include Poles, who also in Italy took care of the attachment to their Polish identity and to the Catholic faith. „The faith and Polishness” are the two components that in the ideological and practical dimension accompanied Polish emigrants. The article shows an unknown person – Teodor Feliks Domaradzki – who was the founder and the first headmaster of the Rome school, and his cooperation with Mother Teresa Kalkstein, the Superior General of the Sisters of the Resurrection, whose result was the service to Polish emigrants in starting their school education in the Polish language.

From ‘cuadro de costumbres’ to Nationalist Tool: The Case of El carnero in the Colombian Literary Canon

Juan Rodríguez Freile's historiographical text known as El carnero, although written in 1636, was not published until 1859. The more than 200 year circulation of the text in manuscript form conditioned the way it was discussed after its publication. Rodríguez Freile's text, therefore, provides an interesting example of the double function, or ‘uses’, of literature in the construction of nationalistic projects. On the one hand, El carnero helped to cement a unified concept of community in the collective imaginary; and, on the other, it became an institutionalized tool that legitimized the concept of community and presented it as a well-defined historical narrative of national identity. This essay situates the publication of El carnero within the larger preoccupation of the Colombian intellectual elite who sought to define what constituted an ‘autochthonous literature’, which, in turn, was constructed in order to represent a set of national customs. The publication and inclusion of El carnero into the literary canon coincided with the change in the criticism regarding the text's style: it came to be considered an indication of the formation of a national character that could be traced all the way to the development of an autochthonous literature rooted in the colonial period.

Children's meaning-making of nature in an outdoor-oriented and democratic Swedish preschool practice

ABSTRACTPrevious research has shown that the Swedish preschool educational tradition is characterised by outdoor-oriented and democratic approaches. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate what consequences these approaches have for preschool children's meaning-making of nature, when studied in practice, in children's spontaneous outdoor activities. The methodology is based on John Dewey's pragmatism with a specific focus on transaction, habits and customs. A transactional analysis method has been developed to fulfil the purpose of the investigation. The analysis illuminates relations between: (1) the Swedish preschool's educational tradition in terms of national customs; and (2) the local customs expressed in practice. Fifty-seven events were chosen for further analysis including play with water and sand, and sliding on snow. Consequences for children's meaning-making of nature are shown as possibilities for experience-based inquiry based on children's own choices and also for enjoying and feeling good in nature. The results show fewer possibilities for scientific concept learning. The results can thus be seen as a contribution to the early childhood educational discussion about how to arrange learning situations of natural phenomena and processes in preschools and at the same time maintain their democratic/outdoor-oriented characteristics.

Consistency Simulation and Optimization for HPIBM Model in Emergency Decision Making

Emergencies in ethnic regions in China happened increasingly, and emergency decision making become more complicated than that in other regions since it involves religions, cultures and national customs etc. The data consistency and incompleteness issues are two of the hot research topics in an emergency decision matrix (EDM). The Hadamard product induced bias matrix (HPIBM) model can be used to identify the most inconsistent entry in an EDM. In this paper, we provide experimental consistency simulations for HPIBM by randomly generating decision matrices with orders 3 to 7. In addition, we propose a novel HPIBM for estimating the missing judgments in an EDM by constructing optimization problem while improving the consistency ratio. A numerical example is used to illustrate the proposed method, and the result shows that the proposed method can find the optimal solutions for missing values and help emergency manager make fast response to the emergency incident even there are incomplete decision information.

In a Land Far, Far Away: Assessing Children's Best Interests in International Relocation Cases

International relocations alter the analyses of best-interest factors normally considered in domestic relocation cases and introduce additional factors. The foreign nation's laws, judicial practices, customs, educational system, and political status create a climate that can be favorable or hostile to the child's best interests, to the left-behind parent's rights of access, and to the intentions of the court that issues the original custody orders. This context requires custody evaluators to give heightened scrutiny to the reasons for the proposed move. A critical focus, more significant than in domestic relocations, is how the moving parent will co-parent and support the child's relationship with the left-behind parent. Experts who fail to adjust their procedures and analyses to the unique aspects of international relocation compromise the quality and helpfulness of their work to the court and to the parties.

Tropical Furniture and Bodily Comportment in Colonial Asia

This essay examines graphic, textual, and material evidence concerning the use of chairs by European colonists in South and Southeast Asia and by Japanese colonists in Taiwan. It focuses particularly on informal furniture made from lightweight tropical fibers such as rattan. The significance of chair sitting and the ways that chairs were used in these different contexts reveal contrasting colonial sensibilities — that is, bodily awarenesses and experiences of the colonial milieu and colonial social relationships. Many Europeans in Asia adopted furniture suited to a posture of languishing that would have been socially unacceptable in the same settings in Europe but reflected the sense of tropical life as a constant physical affliction and the accompanying indifference to the presence of native servants. In Japan's case, the process of colonization was concurrent with an effort to modernize national customs in both metropole and colonies on a European model, and inexpensive upright rattan chairs played a role in this. Yet Japanese colonists in Taiwan found themselves in an unusual situation since they were by habit floor sitters, placed by colonial conquest in a dominant position among a Chinese population accustomed to sitting on chairs. This introduced a complex dynamic into the bodily negotiation of relationships between colonizers and colonized in Taiwan, in which Japanese colonists' attitudes and behaviors did not always successfully map the power relationship of metropole and colony. A coda briefly considers a third type of rattan chair and an accompanying set of sensibilities tied to circuits of deployment in the United States military empire in the Pacific after World War II.

Customs Sanctions of the EU-27: A Detailed Analysis and a Preview on the Modernized Customs Code of the EU and the European Union Customs Code

The customs sanctions of the EU-27 are not harmonized - the sanctioning of customs offences is still the task of the twenty-seven Member States and their national legislation. The US has attacked the purely national customs sanctions of the EU as break of the WTO rules in the WTO Dispute Settlement Case WT/DS315 'Selected Customs Matters' but they lost the case. Now an in depth research shows that twenty-six Member States have sufficient national customs sanctions. It also gives an overview about new ideas of the modernized EU Customs Codes on common customs sanctions.

Between Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism

The history of interwar Alexandria illustrates the difficulties associated with maintaining liberal stability in colonial cosmopolitan societies. While Europeans and those of European descent became closely integrated into the economy and social life of the city, political integration was much more problematic. Despite a tolerant political environment with little local community tension, the separate national customs and institutions that gave the city its unique flavor and character were vulnerable to extremist political exploitation, particularly at a time of international tension and economic contraction. Liberal Alexandria was therefore already dying before the nationalist and socialist policies of the Nasser regime.

International E-Customs Standardization from the Perspective of a Global Company

This paper addresses international e-Customs standardization from the perspective of a global dairy company who faces the result of the standardization efforts. International trade stands in front of a paradox of increasing security and control in order to meet threats from terrorist, diseases and other risks while at the same time lower the administrative burden for traders in order to stay competitive. To solve this seemingly impossible equation national customs and regional economic organizations are seeking to establish a standardized solution for digital reporting of customs data. However, standardization has proven hard to achieve in the socio-technical e-Customs solution. The author identifies and describes what has to be harmonized in order for a global company should perceive e-Customs as standardized. In doing so the author contributes towards an improved understanding of the challenges associated with using a standardization mechanism for harmonizing socio-technical information systems.

Analysis of changes in resources and outputs of companies and partnerships in Hungarian agriculture

The aim of the study was to examine the achievement of Hungarian agricultural companies and partnerships, particularly agricultural co-operatives based on the aggregated database of National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV)1. From the methodological aspect, descriptive statistical methods and time series analysis were used. One of the most important conclusions is that the socio-economic weight of the agricultural co-operatives was strongly decreased in the period after the EU accession. The other important statement is that apart from the general examination of economic actors on aggregated level the comparative analysis of the single organizations forms would be needed. In the case of co-operatives, separated examination of the former type producer co-operatives and the so-called new type ones (e.g. marketing co-operatives etc.) would be necessary.

Reflections on Teaching Chinese Language Films at American Colleges

“Film Studies” has become one of the fastest developing disciplines at liberal arts colleges in the United States since the early 1990s. Many factors have contributed to the growth of this new teaching field, among which is the fact that new generations of college students are more accustomed than ever before to visual learning due to the influence of media technology. Also with the growth of global studies, “film” is widely used as “cultural text” through which students learn about other national histories, cultures, and customs in a visualized way that is different from conventional text-reading. Chinese language cinema, with perspectives and content distinctive from Western films, has become an innovative point in the development of Chinese studies curricula. China’s fast-paced economic development and the emergence of the Chinese cinematic movements (so-called “New Waves”) of the mid-1980s have also played critical roles in drawing increased attention to Chinese cinema in classrooms in the United States.

Transshipment and trade‐based money laundering

PurposeAs determined by the Financial Action Task Force, trade‐based money laundering (TBML) has become one of the three major money laundering methods used today. However, there has been very limited acknowledgment of the risk and counter‐measures against TBML until recently. This is particularly problematic with ever increasing trade volumes through transshipment and container shipping which is getting larger by the day. This paper aims to examine the role of TBML as a vehicle for terrorism financing and laundering proceeds of other criminal activity. It also examines the practice of transshipment, analyzes the challenges that this particular phenomenon poses to detection of TBML activity, and looks at possible alternative policy responses to mitigate additional money laundering risks.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzes reports made by international organizations and government bodies, particularly, the US Government, dealing with various aspects of financial crime, import/export activity, and world trade statistics, in order to identify major challenges and possible solutions to the problem. Interviews were also conducted with the same goals.FindingsEfforts to monitor and staunch the flow of illicit money through trade would be enhanced through more widespread coverage of customs cooperation and standardization of information sharing procedures between national customs agencies. Also, measures should be taken to make free trade areas more transparent to regulatory scrutiny.Originality/valueThis paper serves to expand the limited amount of scholarship on TBML and to suggest a policy approach towards detection of this kind of money laundering activity to policymakers.

Der Imperialismus als Regierung der Masse

The article presents an explorative account of Foucault's history of governmentality in the age of imperialism. Primarily it discusses Foucault's lectures on classical 18th- and newer 20th-century forms of liberalism. Thereby the historic transformation of a self-regulating population into new forms of interventionist government is outlined. Beyond Foucault this transformation is traced back to the need for regulation of socially disintegrated masses in the writings of Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, founder of the German Volkskunde (folklife studies). What Foucault holds to be the liberal paradigm of free circulation of interests is transformed during the imperialistic epoch by Riehl's concept of state-conducted integration through corporate and national customs.

Fisheries, large‐scale trade, and conservation of seahorses in Malaysia and Thailand

Abstract All seahorse species (genus Hippocampus) are listed under CITES Appendix II, requiring that exports of these fishes must be regulated for sustainability. Preliminary trade surveys and anecdotal reports suggested Malaysia and Thailand represented an important source for seahorses used globally in traditional medicine, curios, and aquarium display, but few historic trade or fisheries data are available. Baseline information about pre‐CITES catch and trade is essential for managing seahorse fisheries and trade under CITES, and for understanding present‐day effects of CITES regulation on the seahorse trade. In 1998–1999, seahorse fisheries and trade in both countries were assessed by interviewing participants at many levels of the trade and corroborating those surveys with official trade documents. Seahorses were found to be landed primarily as trawl bycatch. Malaysia's catch of 2900 kg year−1 was less than the estimated domestic consumption (5500–6000 kg year−1), whereas Thailand's catch of 6600 kg year−1 apparently far exceeded domestic consumption (∼520 kg year−1). Both countries imported seahorses from and exported to other Asian nations. Import statistics from Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan recorded maximum annual trade from Malaysia at 1280 kg year−1. Trade surveys indicated that Thailand exported at least 5000 kg annually (similar to the estimation of catch), but national Customs records reported 10 500 kg year−1 in exports, supported by official import records from Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan which indicated that Thailand was the source of up to 11 400 kg year−1. Fishers and traders in both countries reported decreasing availability of seahorses, raising conservation concerns. These apparent declines, in combination with substantial domestic consumption, point towards the challenges that Malaysia and Thailand face in establishing sustainable levels of exports under CITES. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Are Tariff Explanatory Notes Subject to Judicial Supremacy?

In 1803, under the lead of John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that: It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is . . . If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each . . . This is of the very essence of judicial duty. Likewise in the European Union, under both EU law and the national laws of the Member States, it is widely accepted that only the judiciary must have a final say on what a given law means. Turning now from these quasi-constitutional principles to tariff classification matters, the question arises whether such principles are applied in EU customs classification matters? In the case of Explanatory Notes, the executive branch enacts ‘soft law’ guidance that, however, is widely followed and applied by the national customs administrations of the EU Member States. While formally we are facing soft law acts, the wide and almost unconditional application of tariff classification Explanatory Notes by the national customs administrations renders them de facto law.

The Role of Customs Administrations in Preparation of Regional Integration in the European Union

The national customs services of the twenty-seven EU Member States are playing a crucial role for the preparation of the admission of further states to the European Union (EU) by helping to build structures and teach the EU Customs Law in order to enable candidate states to apply the acquis communautaire. The so-called ‘twinning’ is an important and practical approach to facilitate the transfer of knowledge about EU Customs Law to candidate countries. This article explains the legal basis and also shows the practical limitations and problems of the twinning projects in EU Customs Law. It also shows the benefits of the new EU Customs Blueprints for a uniform capacity building of candidate countries.

The National Customs Brokers Course: An E-Learning Model

The liberalization of Australia's economy began in the 1980's by the abolition of protectionist trade barriers. Changes to tariff barriers and duty rates had a significant impact on international trade facilitation service providers, such as licenced customs brokers. In Australia, to operate as a customs broker, an individual must firstly complete a course of study prescribed under the Australian Customs Act 1901, and additionally pass a national examination. This paper discusses the introduction of a revised national customs brokers course, and in particular, the development of an e-learning method of delivery by a private education provider. The main benefits and possible shortfalls of the specific e-learning approach pursued are outlined, together with a summary of feedback from students across a number of units of study. The paper concludes that the e-learning approach offered through this course of study may assist in the development of communities of practice, thereby potentially offering additional benefits to those available through traditional classroom based studies.