Special Action Pilot Cities for Cross-Border Trade Facilitation Increased to 45 in 2026

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 16 (Reporter Zou Yuqin, Zou Duowei) High-quality development of foreign trade relies on continuous improvement of trade facilitation. In response to the latest changes in the international trade environment, the General Administration of Customs, together with the Cyberspace Administration of China, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Commerce, and 18 other departments (units), jointly launched a six-month special campaign for cross-border trade facilitation in 2026.

Sun Meijun, Director of the General Administration of Customs, said at the deployment meeting for the 2026 cross-border trade facilitation special campaign that compared to last year, the pilot cities for this year’s campaign have been expanded and increased. New cities include Hohhot, Changchun, Suzhou, Jinhua, Quanzhou, Nanchang, Yantai, Wuhan, Changsha, Zhuhai, Nanning, Kunming, Xi’an, and others, with a total of 45 cities participating.

Specifically, focusing on optimizing and upgrading cargo trade, vigorously developing service trade, and innovating digital and green trade, this year’s campaign has introduced 29 new policies and measures to help improve the quality and efficiency of foreign trade. These mainly include deepening the innovation of import and export customs clearance supervision models, optimizing supervision services for new foreign trade formats, enhancing cross-border logistics efficiency, strengthening digital smart port construction, promoting standard and rule interoperability, and strengthening comprehensive services for enterprises.

A relevant person from the National Port Management Office of the General Administration of Customs explained that promoting cross-border trade facilitation is an inevitable requirement for expanding opening-up and increasing cooperation, smoothing domestic and international dual circulation, actively responding to changes in the international situation, helping enterprises stabilize orders, expand markets, and increase benefits. It is also a concrete action to uphold the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement and support multilateral trade systems.

Since 2018, the General Administration of Customs, in collaboration with relevant departments, has organized annual cross-border trade facilitation campaigns. By 2025, a total of 144 facilitation measures have been introduced, of which 110 mature measures have been replicated and promoted nationwide.

(Edited by: Wen Jing)

Keywords: Trade