In 2024, China's foreign trade exceeded the 43 trillion yuan mark for the first time, an increase of 5% year-on-year, and maintained the position of the largest country in goods trade for eight consecutive years.

It was learned from the national Customs work conference that in 2024, the national customs will face the situation of increasing external uncertainties and unstable factors, promote convenience by excellent service, further improve the level of cross-border trade facilitation, add 55 new service functions in the "single window" of international trade, and continuously expand the functions of one-stop business handling and cross-border interconnection, which will effectively promote the quality and stability of China's foreign trade.

Sun Meijun, Secretary of the Party Committee of the General Administration of Customs, said that in order to promote the stable growth of foreign trade, the General Administration of Customs issued and implemented the "Sixteen Measures to further optimize the business environment at ports and promote the convenience of customs clearance for enterprises". At the same time, we carried out research on tax administration in key industries, implemented tariff concessions and various preferential tax measures, and reduced and refunded 282.9 billion yuan in taxes to help business entities reduce costs and increase efficiency.

The 2024 special action to promote cross-border trade facilitation, led by the General Administration of Customs and attended by multiple departments, was carried out in 20 cities across the country. The action focuses on cultivating demonstration highlands to optimize the business environment at ports, and 29 reform and innovation measures have been replicated and promoted across the country.

According to statistics, by 2024, with the approval of The State Council, 4 new ports will be opened, 10 ports will be expanded, and 4 ports will be closed. The layout and function of ports across the country will be further optimized, and the traffic capacity of key ports will be further improved. At the same time, the General Administration of Customs led the introduction of guidance on the construction of smart ports, carried out pilot smart port construction at 57 ports in 22 regions across the country, and provided 25 categories and 923 service items in the "single window" of international trade, effectively meeting the needs of enterprises for "one-stop" and "full link" business management.

The customs actively serves the implementation of the national strategy and further expands the high-level opening up to the outside world. In terms of promoting the upgrading of the level of the open platform, various customs work related to the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port has been vigorously and orderly promoted, and the stress test has been further expanded. Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone was successfully closed, and the "model room" of sub-line management achieved practical results. In order to further implement the upgrading strategy of the pilot free trade zone, the Customs continued to deepen the innovation of the supervision system, formulated the performance evaluation, planning adjustment and exit management methods of the comprehensive free trade zone, set up and accepted 17 new, adjusted and optimized 16, and set up 7 new bonded logistics centers.

While ensuring the smooth flow of trade, the customs has focused on strong supervision and risk prevention, strengthened the security barrier at the door, and effectively improved the accuracy of risk prevention and control, continuously improved the standardization of inspection, collection and management, and steadily improved the effectiveness of inspection and smuggling. The "common detection of multiple diseases" supports the effective improvement of the "common prevention of multiple diseases", intercepted 71,000 quarantine pests, 13,000 "exotic pets", and detected a total of 6,201 animal diseases through national biosecurity monitoring. In the special action of "gateway protection" of imported food, 4,280 batches of unqualified food and cosmetics were returned or destroyed.

2025 is the year of the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the year of planning the "15th Five-Year Plan", and it is of great significance to do a good job in customs work. It is reported that the customs will play the role of the hub of the domestic and international double cycle, take the initiative to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of policy supply, and promote the positive factors and favorable conditions in all aspects to better transform the high-quality development efficiency of foreign trade.

Sun Meijun said that it will be guided by further deepening customs reform in a comprehensive way, take the construction of smart customs and the action of "smart customs power" as the starting point, take the promotion of high-quality development and high-level opening up as the top priority, timely introduce accurate and high-gold support measures to help enterprises stabilize orders, expand the market, strengthen supervision and optimize services, and achieve both "live" and "control".