Chongqing - The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents on Dec 15, a move Chinese officials called a milestone for global logistics rules. Chongqing authorities stated that the city contributed to early trials using cross-border railway bills to support China–Europe trade financing.
On December 16, the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and China’s Permanent Mission in Vienna held a commemorative event marking the convention’s approval at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly. Li Song, China’s ambassador to the UN Office at Vienna, said China proposed in 2019 that UNCITRAL begin work on new international rules in this area, with the multilateral legislative process initiated through pilot practices in Chongqing.
Speaking at a December 17 briefing in Chongqing, Yang Lin, director of the Port Logistics Office of the Chongqing Municipal Government, said the city will leverage the convention’s adoption to accelerate the rollout of a “one-document system” for digital bills of lading across the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC)—a transport network linking western China with Southeast Asia and global shipping lanes.
The system refers to multimodal transport conducted under a single document covering multiple legs, such as rail and sea, designed to streamline settlement procedures and the circulation of cargo rights.
On December 15, a Chongqing-Southeast Asia freight train under the China-Singapore multi-modal demonstration project departs Chongqing, heading to Qinzhou Port before continuing by ship across the South China Sea, with arrival in Singapore expected in six days. (Photo/Guan Zhuohang)
Yang said Chongqing will move from pilot projects to scaled applications, seek mutual recognition of rules across regions, and deepen cooperation with institutions along corridor routes. The city will also use technologies such as blockchain to promote shared data recognition and rule connectivity, boosting global acceptance of digital bills of lading, streamlining cross-border logistics, and cutting trade costs.
“Companies are adopting digital bills because they reduce costs and improve access to financing,” said Wang Shanli, deputy director of the Port Logistics Office of the Chongqing Municipal Government.
As an example, Wang cited the November 4 launch of a “Chongqing–Chancay, Peru” rail-sea “one-document” service. The route carried 96 Changan light trucks from Chongqing to Qinzhou Port in three days, before continuing by sea to Chancay via Hong Kong. Officials said the service shortened overall transit time by about 15 days compared with traditional river-sea transport and reduced comprehensive per-container costs by roughly 25 percent.
Qinzhou Port area at Beibu Gulf, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. (Photo/Chen Lei)
From January to November this year, Chongqing issued 18,377 “one-document” multimodal bills of lading, up 38.2 percent year on year. Of these, 6,891 were digital bills, an increase of 67.9 percent. The total cargo value reached about 229.5 billion yuan (approximately 32.59 billion U.S. dollars), which Wang said was 4.2 times higher than a year earlier.
According to Wang, cargo categories have expanded from parallel-import automobiles to include rubber, timber, machinery, auto parts, and consumer goods. Service scenarios have also widened beyond rail and rail-sea transport to additional modes such as river-sea services, with routes now spanning East Asia, Southeast Asia, South America, and Europe.
Chongqing plans to further expand the role of digital negotiable transport documents by developing financing models that extend from bill-of-lading financing to warehouse receipt and transport-guarantee financing, creating tighter linkages among trade, logistics, finance, and regulation.
“The unified digital bill platform enables one-time data entry and full-process sharing, improving document circulation efficiency by more than 50 percent,” said Gong Rongjie, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Financial Committee Office.
Gong added that blockchain-based traceability allows banks to better manage cargo as collateral and has supported logistics-chain financing pilots. The number of cooperating banks rose from six to 11 between January and November 2025, with cumulative financing nearing 10 billion yuan.