2026 is the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan”. The domestic demand market potential continues to be released, new consumption scenarios continue to emerge, and hot topics such as cultural and tourism integration, ice and snow economy, and national trend consumption frequently emerge, demonstrating the resilience and vitality of the ultra-large-scale market.
Since the beginning of this year, my country’s cross-border e-commerce has continued its strong growth momentum and has become an important force in stabilizing foreign trade and promoting consumption.
Data from the General Administration of Customs show that in the first quarter, my country’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 618.46 billion yuan, of which exports were 473.55 billion yuan and imports were 144.91 billion yuan.
The performance of Shanghai Pudong Airport Port is particularly outstanding: in the first five months, the number of cross-border e-commerce declarations reached 345 million tickets and 36.415 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44.8% and 10.6% respectively; in May, the single-month declaration volume reached 81.37 million tickets and 8.592 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 68.4% and 37.4% respectively, both hitting record highs.
Cross-border e-commerce, the “new engine” of foreign trade, is accelerating, injecting Chinese momentum into global trade.
During the “618” e-commerce promotion, the cross-border e-commerce customs supervision warehouse at Shanghai Pudong International Airport was busy.
The sound of barcode scanning gunshots and the sound of announcements on the sorting line came one after another. The packages were loaded onto the cars in an orderly manner and shipped to consumers as soon as possible.
Lin Han, the head of customs affairs of Shanghai Eastern Airlines Express, introduced that through mechanisms such as “advance declaration, arrival inspection and release”, “list verification, summary tax payment” and 7×24 hours appointment for customs clearance, the goods promoted can achieve efficient customs clearance.
Data show that in May alone, the number of cross-border e-commerce declarations at Shanghai Pudong Airport reached 81.37 million tickets and 8.592 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 68.4% and 37.4% respectively.
At the same time, the average daily shipment volume of Hongqiao Business District Bonded Logistics Center during the “618” promotion period exceeded 50,000 orders, a year-on-year increase of 13.6%.
The “dual hubs” of Pudong Airport and Hongqiao B Bao work together to provide an efficient channel for domestic consumers to purchase “global goods”.
From the perspective of commodity structure, in terms of exports, traditional advantageous products such as plastic products, clothing, shoes and bags, and home furnishings continue to sell well, and the proportion of commodities with higher unit prices such as mechanical keyboards, astronomical telescopes, and wigs has steadily increased.
In terms of imports, personal care cosmetics, fashionable clothing, and affordable luxury goods continue to lead the way. The import volume of leisure and entertainment products such as game consoles, outdoor camping equipment, and sports equipment has gradually increased, reflecting the obvious trend of domestic consumption upgrading.
The “15th Five-Year Plan” outline clearly states that “supporting the development of new business forms and new models such as cross-border e-commerce” is deployed to promote regulatory innovations in customs clearance, taxation, foreign exchange and other areas.
This year’s “Government Work Report” further requires “promoting the expansion and upgrading of the cross-border e-commerce plus overseas warehouse model, and standardizing and orderly development”, pointing out the direction for the industry to shift from scale expansion to quality improvement.
In the Bonded Logistics Center of Hongqiao Business District in Shanghai, the Customs used platforms such as JD International as a pilot project to introduce blockchain technology into cross-border e-commerce supervision, building a multi-chain collaboration framework of “enterprise order chain + logistics supply chain + customs supervision chain + aviation trade blockchain”, and connecting 11 types of data such as corporate procurement, warehousing, logistics, and payment to the blockchain platform.
The customs management method has been upgraded from “managing goods” to “managing quantity”, and the logistics and distribution efficiency of pilot enterprises has increased by 16.1%. “Invisible customs clearance” has greatly improved the consumer experience.
System innovation in the export sector has also achieved remarkable results.
Previously, the “Customs Import and Export Tariffs of the People’s Republic of China” classified robots at a macro level, and companies faced pain points such as difficulty in classification and slow customs clearance.
After research, the Tax Collection and Administration Bureau (Shanghai) of the General Administration of Customs has promoted the addition of exclusive tax numbers for cleaning robots and intelligent bionic robots, which will be officially implemented on January 1 this year.
In the first five months of this year, Shanghai’s port robot exports reached 8.36 billion yuan, accounting for more than 40% of the country’s total, ranking first in the country.
Among them, the export of cleaning robots was 6.11 billion yuan, and the export of industrial robots was 2.13 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39.5%, successfully entering the traditional industrial robot markets such as Germany and Japan.
Tax policy innovation has opened up efficient channels for enterprises to go overseas.
Busily operating cross-border channels, digitally empowered regulatory changes, and the accelerated export of high value-added products overseas… In the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan”, cross-border e-commerce is developing with high quality, writing the Chinese story of “buying globally and selling globally”.
