Chongqing- The first outbound train of the China-Laos Railway in the New International Land-sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC) using the railway express mode departed from Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on May 21, saving 24 hours of customs clearance time and more than 200 yuan for a single box. It was issued together by the Chongqing and Kunming customs as a mark of the China-Laos Railway of the ILSTC (Chongqing – Vientiane), taking the lead in the two-way railway express era.

As the starting point of the China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing) and the ILSTC, Chongqing has dispatched more than ten international freight trains daily, covering 300 ports in more than 100 countries and regions. Over the years, Chongqing Customs District has taken the initiative to promote foreign trade and the high-quality development of Chongqing's open economy, mainly from three aspects of the trade corridor, customs clearance and industrial service. 

Open trade corridor

The Chongqing Customs District insists on the open international trade corridor to promote the opening up of Chongqing in inland China, striving to achieve technology and intelligence of customs clearance.

"On the one hand, we first completed switching the new railway system at the inland railway port, realizing the data connection between the railway and the customs," said a competent official of Yuzhou Customs, affiliated with Chongqing Customs District. "On the other hand, we continue to strengthen data sharing with local authorities and strive to achieve the whole process of online management."

The average railway customs clearance time has been reduced by nearly 90% compared to 2017, and the port business environment has improved effectively.

Speed up customs clearance

Recently, a batch of auto parts shipped to Europe by the China Railway Express departed from the Jiangjin District, Chongqing. After the train arrived at the customs control area gate at the central station, the arrival confirmation and customs clearance were completed within 10 seconds.

"Under the new model, the number of cargo transshipment in the central station has been greatly reduced," said a related staff. "Now, it saves one hour of handling time and 200 yuan of lifting fees for each container."

Since the Chongqing customs took the lead in launching the new model among railway ports in the country, nearly 250,000 business containers have been implemented, increasing the speed of direct cargo release by 30%.

Big industrial service

Since the export business of the business-to-business (B2B), a type of e-commerce, was piloted in Chongqing, the accumulated export value of Chongqing Customs District has exceeded 5 billion yuan (about 750 million U.S. dollars) in just over a year.

Chongqing Jinyonghui cross-border e-commerce company was the first to conduct such business in Chongqing. In just one year, its performance has more than doubled, and its business range has expanded to more than ten countries in Europe, including Germany and the Netherlands.

At the same time, Chongqing Customs District launched the integrated model of B2B cross-border e-commerce, China Railway Express to Europe, and overseas warehouse to successfully built a B2B export warehouse in the customs supervision area. The customs also use the advantages of policy stacking to carry out a variety of businesses and speed up the shipment arrival and departure, to further promote the smooth operation of the train. 

(Wang Yuxuan, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)