At the beginning of 2026, my country’s foreign trade received further policy support, with a series of facilitation measures releasing new momentum. On January 15, the General Administration of Customs held a press conference, where the Deputy Director of the National Port Management Office announced a new batch of 25 cross-border trade facilitation measures to be replicated and promoted nationwide. This will inject stronger impetus into promoting the steady growth and quality improvement of my country’s foreign trade and creating new advantages for opening up to the outside world. According to the latest data released by the General Administration of Customs on January 14, my country’s total import and export volume reached 45.47 trillion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%, with growth in imports and exports with more than 190 countries and regions. Exports of high-tech products and “new three essential” products increased by 13.2% and 27.1% respectively. More than 780,000 business entities had import and export records, and the overall foreign trade performance for the year was remarkable.
High-quality development of foreign trade cannot be separated from the continuous improvement of trade facilitation. Since 2018, the General Administration of Customs, together with relevant departments, has organized special actions to promote cross-border trade facilitation every year, and as of 2024, a total of 115 facilitation measures have been introduced. From April to September 2025, the General Administration of Customs, the Ministry of Commerce, and 20 other departments, benchmarking against international best practices and actively responding to the demands of enterprises, launched a five-month special action to facilitate cross-border trade in 25 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing, introducing 29 pilot innovative policies and measures, which have achieved positive results. Questionnaire survey results show that 98% of enterprises are satisfied with the special action, demonstrating the continuous optimization of my country’s port business environment.
This special action has provided significant assistance.
To boost market confidence, the pilot program for combining import vehicle certificates into a single document was expanded, resulting in the issuance of 460,000 certificates and improving efficiency by over 80%. During the special campaign, exports through market procurement trade reached 461.58 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.4%. Regarding cost reduction and efficiency improvement for enterprises, the policy of proactive disclosure was implemented, reducing late payment fees by 20.961 million yuan for eligible enterprises. The pilot program for “inspection before shipment” for LCL (Less than Container Load) exports was actively expanded, resulting in an overall export efficiency increase of 30% and a logistics cost reduction of nearly 20%. In terms of improving the business environment, visa-free policies were continuously optimized, and the scope of visa-free countries was further expanded, contributing to the continued growth of “China tourism” and “China shopping.” The International Trade Single Window has achieved electronic data exchange with 15 countries and regions for certificates of origin and inspection and quarantine certificates. The State Council executive meeting held on December 31, 2025, made arrangements and put forward new requirements for further promoting efficient and smooth cross-border logistics, optimizing the supervision of special commodities, supporting comprehensive bonded zones to carry out bonded testing business, and improving the level of intelligent supervision and services. To implement the spirit of this meeting, further release policy dividends, and help achieve a good start to the “15th Five-Year Plan,” after summary and evaluation, it was decided to replicate and promote 25 relatively mature policy measures in 5 aspects nationwide. Specifically, to promote efficient and smooth cross-border logistics, there are seven measures, including deepening multimodal transport coordination between coastal, inland, and border regions, supporting the development of the “Air Silk Road,” and optimizing air cargo terminal operation models. To support the development of new business formats and models, there are five measures, including supporting air transport of goods with electronic components and exploring cross-border mutual recognition of electronic certification and signatures. In addition, there are four measures each in optimizing the supervision model for special commodities and improving the level of intelligent supervision services, as well as five measures to enhance the effectiveness of benefiting enterprises and the public, including facilitating cross-border transportation of vegetables and other agricultural products from the mainland to Hong Kong and Macao and continuously optimizing visa policies. Cross-border e-commerce, as the fastest-growing, most promising, and most influential new form of foreign trade, has become an important trend in international trade development and a new driving force for China’s foreign trade development. Previously, enterprises needed to achieve sales before they could apply for export tax refunds, which often took a long time. To help export enterprises overcome financial bottlenecks and accelerate cash flow, significantly improving capital turnover, the policy of “tax refund upon departure and post-sale accounting” for cross-border e-commerce exports from overseas warehouses has shortened the tax refund cycle and alleviated the pressure on enterprises’ cash flow. A second-level inspector from the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce stated that the Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments to strengthen overall coordination and enhance central-local collaboration. This will be achieved by improving support policies, strengthening the cultivation of key players, and actively participating in international cooperation, creating an institutional environment conducive to the development of new business models and an open, inclusive, and fair development environment to promote the healthy, sustainable, and innovative development of cross-border e-commerce. In addition to increasing support for the development of new trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce, my country is also deepening the construction of the international trade “single window,” helping enterprises achieve “one-stop online processing” for the entire chain and all aspects of cross-border trade. Currently, the “single window” has been built into a “one-stop” comprehensive service platform, connecting with the systems of 30 departments (units) and providing 1010 services in 25 categories, including cargo declaration, inspection and quarantine, tax and fee processing, export tax refunds, and cross-border e-commerce, covering all major aspects of the international trade process.
