On April 1, the General Administration of Customs fully implemented the cross-customs area return policy for cross-border e-commerce retail export commodities (9610). This measure broke the bottleneck of “easy exports, difficult returns, original customs refunds, and high costs” that had long plagued the industry, and achieved “national handling, close customs processing, and efficient logistics.”
This reform has a superimposed effect with the tax preferential policies announced in Announcement No. 16 of 2026 by the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation, injecting strong policy momentum into the internationalization of Linyi Mall, and marking the entry of my country’s cross-border e-commerce service system into a new stage that is more mature, more inclusive, and more efficient.
For a long time, the return of export goods must be “returned”, which has led to high logistics costs, long cycles, and complicated procedures. A large number of small and medium-sized e-commerce companies have been forced to destroy goods overseas, and there is a serious backlog of funds and inventory.
The new policy allows companies to independently choose any customs across the country to handle returns, and with the added benefit of being exempt from import duties, value-added tax, and consumption tax on returns in their original condition within 6 months, the overall return cost is significantly reduced.
The two-wheel drive of “National Refund + Tax Relief” fundamentally solves the congestion point of reverse logistics, allowing Linyi merchants to feel more secure when “going overseas”, have more worry-free after-sales service, and have more efficient turnover.
From “return to the original customs” to “universal handling across the country” is a profound change in the supervision model.
The customs is guided by the needs of enterprises, breaks down geographical barriers, optimizes the supervision process, and achieves “more data travel and less errands for enterprises”.
The tax policy simultaneously relaxes the reasons for return shipments and clarifies the original status standards, forming a whole-chain facilitation system.
The coordinated efforts of the two policies are not only an in-depth advancement of the “decentralization, regulation and service” reform, but also an optimization of the business environment through institutional innovation and a solid institutional foundation for the high-quality development of foreign trade.
As a northern trade and logistics hub, Linyi Mall is accelerating its leap from “buying and selling across the country” to “buying and selling around the world”.
The city’s cross-border e-commerce import and export reached 31.55 billion yuan, a growth rate of 32 times. 9610 and other models are fully covered, and specialty industries such as hardware, labor insurance, and building materials are deeply connected to the Internet.
The implementation of the new return policy accurately matches Linyi’s characteristics of dense small and medium-sized merchants and high-frequency small-amount exports, significantly reducing after-sales costs, revitalizing overseas inventory, and improving customer trust.
The policy dividends go directly to market entities, helping Linyi build a cross-border e-commerce highland in the north and promote the upgrade of the entire “mall + logistics + industry” chain.
The combination of return convenience and tax incentives not only optimizes logistics and costs, but also improves global competitiveness.
For Linyi, it is necessary to seize the policy window, improve the functions of the comprehensive bonded area and cross-border e-commerce industrial park, promote the upgrade of the “overseas warehouse + industrial belt” model, and strengthen customs, taxation, foreign exchange and commercial collaborative services.
Guide enterprises to make good use of policies, standardize operations, improve quality, and expand the global market with better after-sales, faster response, and stronger resilience.
Small policies spur big development, and small breakthroughs activate the big picture.
The new cross-border e-commerce returns policy and tax incentives work together to inject certainty and new momentum into the internationalization of Linyi Mall.
We look forward to Linyi taking policy as its wing and innovation as its sail, continuing to deepen the digitalization and international transformation of business logistics, showing greater achievements in building a new development pattern of services, making Yimeng’s good products accessible to the world, making its mall brand famous around the world, and writing a new chapter in Yimeng’s high-level openness and high-quality development.
