An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 14, 2026 shows cargo ships loading and unloading containers at a container terminal in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province. (Photo by Zeng Demeng/Xinhua)

BEIJING, March 16 (Xinhua) -- China will expand its pilot cities for a cross-border trade facilitation campaign to 45 in 2026, up from 25 in 2025, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said on Monday.

The six-month campaign was jointly launched by the GAC and 23 other departments.

Sun Meijun, head of the GAC, announced at a deployment meeting that 20 cities have been newly added to the pilot list, including Hohhot, Changchun, Suzhou, Jinhua, Quanzhou, Nanchang, Yantai, Wuhan, Changsha, Zhuhai, Nanning, Kunming and Xi'an.

The campaign will see a series of new measures rolled out, which focus on upgrading goods trade, expanding services trade, and promoting digital and green trade.

The measures include innovations in customs clearance supervision, optimized services for new forms of foreign trade, improved cross-border logistics efficiency, smarter port construction, enhanced alignment with international standards, and better support for enterprises.

A GAC official said facilitating cross-border trade is essential to expanding opening-up, strengthening cooperation, and smoothing domestic and international economic flows. It also helps enterprises secure orders, explore markets and increase profits amid global uncertainties, while demonstrating China's support for the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation Agreement and the multilateral trading system.

Since 2018, the GAC has organized annual campaigns to enhance cross-border trade, implementing a total of 144 measures by 2025, with 110 of these measures being adopted nationwide.