Qingdao is advancing a special initiative to facilitate cross-border trade, introducing innovative customs supervision models and improving the business environment at its ports.
According to the Municipal Port Office, since the beginning of this year, Qingdao has steadily pushed forward this special action, with relevant port units focusing on deepening innovation in customs supervision, optimizing oversight of new foreign trade formats, boosting cross-border logistics efficiency, strengthening smart port development and connectivity, and enhancing comprehensive support services for enterprises.
In a pioneering move, Qingdao created an integrated "TIR plus bonded" model, established the nation's first mutual recognition mechanism for certificates of origin between customs and the trade promotion council, and built the country's first joint inspection center for internationally rotating crew members.
Relevant port units in Qingdao have concentrated on raising the level of customs clearance facilitation, actively advancing regulatory model reform, and using institutional innovation to improve the port business environment. The pioneering joint crew inspection model, which created the nation's first joint inspection center for internationally rotating crew members, enables "offline joint inspection and online collaborative support," compressing procedure processing and luggage inspection to under 10 minutes. Smart supervision and intelligent diversion have been implemented, establishing a mechanism for free cross-zone transfer of import and export inspection containers and enabling resource sharing of inspection sites and equipment.
Currently, new foreign trade formats and models represented by cross-border e-commerce are flourishing, with the number of business entities and platform carriers continuing to rise. Focusing on cross-border e-commerce and industrial going-global, Qingdao is promoting the "cross-border e-commerce plus industrial belt" model, building a "Silk Road e-commerce" comprehensive service base and product selection center, and creating a "TIR plus bonded" cross-border e-commerce import business model. Qingdao Customs has innovated the "front-end supervision warehouse" and "return center warehouse" models for cross-border e-commerce exports, setting a high standard by building the nation's first cross-border e-commerce retail export front-end supervision warehouse embedded in enterprise production operations. At the same time, comprehensive supervision services for overseas warehouses have been optimized, relying on the cross-border e-commerce public service platform to improve the functions of the city's smart comprehensive service platform for cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses.
Replacing "manual inspection" with "AI control" and shifting from "post-incident handling" to "pre-incident warning," smart port development is becoming an important support for improving port governance efficiency and promoting cross-border trade facilitation. Since the launch of the special initiative, Qingdao has continuously strengthened technology-enabled port operations, creating a new port control model featuring "forward police office plus visual large model plus stairway sentry," driving the shift from "post-incident handling" to "pre-incident warning." In this work, a digital shipping and trade service platform has been built, creating a port data distribution center and risk assessment center. An innovative "SCO express clearance" supervision model has been introduced, clearing bottlenecks across the entire chain from "port to inland station to China-Europe freight train."
From "regulatory innovation" to "technology empowerment," from the "TIR plus bonded" integrated model to "regional connectivity," Qingdao's port is delivering a new answer sheet for cross-border trade facilitation through one pragmatic measure after another. Next, Qingdao will continue to deepen the special initiative for cross-border trade facilitation, empowering high-quality economic and social development through high-level port opening.
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