The high-quality development of foreign trade is inseparable from the continuous improvement of the level of cross-border trade facilitation.
Recently, the Wuhan Municipal Commerce Bureau and Wuhan Customs jointly issued the “Wuhan Special Action Policies and Measures to Promote Cross-Border Trade Facilitation in 2026”, introducing 35 precise and pragmatic measures to continue to optimize the port business environment and inject strong impetus into the high-level opening up of inland areas.
The 35 policies and measures introduced this time focus on innovation in customs clearance supervision, cultivation of new foreign trade formats, improvement of cross-border logistics, construction of digital and intelligent ports, and enterprise integration
In the six core areas of service and market expansion, on the basis of comprehensively undertaking the country’s 29 pilot policies, combined with Wuhan’s industrial characteristics and opening-up advantages, it innovatively integrates a number of local self-selected actions, accurately solves cross-border trade blockages and difficulties, and promotes institutional opening-up to be deeper and more solid.
Policies and measures focus on the needs of industrial innovation and development, and empower industrial upgrading through regulatory innovation.
For innovative and export-oriented featured industries such as the “three new things” (new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products), specialty agricultural and food products, and integrated circuits, measures such as green channels for overseas exports, customized supervision of key products, and export support for specialty agricultural and food products will be launched to clear up barriers to customs clearance for new business forms and new products, and help the “grain” industry to go overseas conveniently and improve quality and efficiency.
Led by digital reform, the policy will accelerate the construction of digital smart ports, continue to improve the “single window” function of Hubei’s international trade, promote the application of “artificial intelligence + port supervision”, promote the implementation of new technologies such as facial recognition and intelligent document review in all port scenarios, create an innovative paradigm of smart supervision and smart services, and continuously improve the efficiency and service levels of port customs clearance.
Focusing on the urgent needs and worries of enterprises, the 35 policies work hard to ensure comprehensive services for enterprises, deepen cross-departmental joint incentives and cultivation of AEO enterprises, build a comprehensive enterprise service platform, optimize import customs clearance of medicines and cosmetics, exchange rate hedging, foreign-related legal services and other supporting services, strictly regulate enterprise-related charges in the import and export links, fully implement tax reduction and fee reduction policies, effectively reduce the costs of enterprises in the import and export links, and continuously enhance the sense of gain in enterprise development.
In recent years, the Wuhan Municipal Commerce Bureau, in conjunction with Wuhan Customs and other relevant units, has always adhered to a problem-oriented, demand-oriented, and effect-oriented approach, and continued to deepen the reform of cross-border trade facilitation. A series of innovative measures have been implemented and have achieved results. Port customs clearance efficiency has continued to improve, import and export costs have steadily declined, companies going global have continued to grow, and the resilience and vitality of foreign trade development have continued to increase.
In 2025, Wuhan’s foreign trade scale will reach 454.85 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%, ranking among the top three among the 19 sub-provincial and above cities in the country. From January to April this year, Wuhan’s foreign trade import and export volume was 159.63 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.5%, once again achieving rapid growth.
The relevant person in charge of the Wuhan Customs Law and Comprehensive Office said that they will give full play to the functions of the customs department, deepen the innovation of customs clearance supervision models, optimize port services, continue to shorten customs clearance time, reduce institutional transaction costs, and use efficient supervision and high-quality services to help the high-quality development of Wuhan’s open economy.
The relevant person in charge of the Wuhan Municipal Commerce Bureau stated that they will seize the opportunity of Wuhan being selected as a pilot city for the National Cross-border Trade Facilitation Special Action in 2026, actively promote the accelerated implementation of national pilot policies in Wuhan, and make every effort to solve the port customs clearance, international logistics, intellectual property protection, testing and certification, cross-border settlement and other difficulties that enterprises are concerned about, so that good policies can benefit enterprises in a timely manner, comprehensively enhance their sense of gain, and escort the high-quality development of foreign trade with high-quality services.
