Chongqing - A new UN convention signed by 26 countries in Accra, Ghana, on October 26 aims to make cross-border trade by rail and road easier to finance and manage, potentially reducing barriers for businesses moving goods between countries.

The agreement addresses a long-standing gap in international trade law and builds on nearly a decade of experimentation in Chongqing, where local authorities and businesses have developed land transport documents with functions similar to maritime bills of lading.

For decades, maritime trade has benefited from a well-established system of bills of lading. These documents serve not only as proof of shipment but also as evidence of control over cargo, allowing businesses to transfer goods and secure financing while shipments are in transit. Railway consignment notes, by contrast, have traditionally served mainly as transport receipts, limiting their use in trade financing and cargo transactions.

As China-Europe freight trains and multimodal transport routes expanded, the gap became harder to ignore. In 2017, Chongqing, a major logistics hub linking the China Railway Express with the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, began testing a solution. 

On November 15, 2024, the 100,000th China-Europe freight train departed from Tuanjiecun Railway Station in Chongqing. (Photo/Chongqing Daily)

Working with banks and logistics companies, the city sought to give railway bills of lading greater commercial recognition while establishing clearer financing arrangements and transport responsibilities. 

On December 22, 2017, Chongqing received the world's first shipment involved in an international trade transaction settled by letter of credit against a railway bill of lading. The model was put into batch operation three months later, with 12 imported vehicles completing transactions under the arrangement.

The next challenge was to extend the approach beyond rail transport. Goods moving by both sea and rail often required separate documents at each stage, adding paperwork, costs and delays. 

In 2019, Chongqing issued China's first full-route multimodal transport bill of lading, allowing a single document to cover the entire journey. Compared with traditional river-sea transport, the model shortened transit times by about 15 days and reduced overall logistics costs by approximately 25%. 

By the first half of 2026, Chongqing had issued more than 54,000 such documents, covering cargo worth over 40 billion yuan (about 5.6 billion U.S. dollars).

The experiments soon attracted global attention. In July 2019, China's Ministry of Commerce submitted a proposal to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, calling for international rules governing negotiable cargo documents in cross-border railway transport.

Chongqing officials and legal professionals joined China's delegation, bringing experience from the city's pilot projects into international discussions. After years of expert consultations and negotiations, the proposed framework took shape. Rather than replacing existing transport conventions, it established a complementary legal basis for negotiable cargo documents across relevant modes of transport.

The U.N. General Assembly adopted the convention in December 2025, and 26 countries signed it in Accra in October 2026. The agreement marks a step toward giving businesses greater legal certainty when moving and financing goods across land-based trade routes. 

From a single railway shipment to a U.N. convention, Chongqing has shown how an inland city can do more than follow global trade rules. By turning local solutions into international standards, it is opening new possibilities for inland trade and global commerce.