Coastal province to ride wave of expansive trade agreement

Reduced-tariff imports shipped through Shandong from RCEP members are mainly parts and materials used in equipment manufacturing and new materials businesses, while such exports shipped through Shandong to RCEP members are mostly chemicals, textiles, plastics and agricultural products, Yao said.

Huangchao Mahan, a foreign trade service provider in Rongcheng, Weihai, recently applied for 13 RCEP certificates of origin for frozen vegetables sold to Japan.

The company sells some 480 million yuan of frozen vegetables to Japan annually. The certificates are expected to save 4 million yuan in tariffs this year, said Wang Xiaobo, company manager.

"Shandong has advantages in agriculture, while Japan and South Korea have a huge demand for agricultural products, indicating that Shandong can play a significant role in RCEP," Zhang Yiying, deputy head of the province's commerce department, said at a news conference about Shandong's advances in opening-up.

Tariffs on many agricultural goods have been eliminated, and trade procedures have been streamlined among RCEP members to facilitate cross-border logistics, Zhang said.

The RCEP agreement requires all members to ensure fresh items such as seafood, fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs and milk pass through Customs within six hours.

Gao Xindong, general manager of Wantong Food Co Ltd in Weifang, said the company has benefitted from work that started in 2021 to prepare for the RCEP measures. Keeping exports of fresh vegetables like onions and scallions fresh is crucial for the company.

"Fresh vegetables go rotten easily, so it matters if our products are approved upon arrival. If they aren't, they are sent back, which increases our costs," Gao said. "Now with the RCEP agreement, our fresh vegetables pass through Customs within six hours, two hours less than that in 2020. This is definitely favorable for us," he said.

Boosted by tariff concessions that cut costs and enhance competitiveness, businesses expect their trade volumes to increase this year.

Liu Kun, business manager at Qingdao Haiwan Group, a chemical company in Qingdao, predicts the company's exports to Japan will grow by 10 percent this year.

"Our annual exports to Japan are around 45 million yuan. The tariff concession will help us save 1 million yuan this year, making our products more competitive in price," Liu said.

Increasing foreign trade will boost the development of logistics. The volume of cargo handled by the Port of Qingdao, operated by Shandong Port Group (SPG), is expected to see double-digit growth this year, said Sun Mengmeng, planning director of the operations department of Qingdao Qianwan United Container Terminal at the port.

SPG, the world's largest port conglomerate in cargo capacity, will expand its network to improve logistics linking China and other RCEP members, said Li Fengli, the group's general manager.

Over 80 ports in RCEP member countries had 113 shipment routes linked with ports run by SPG last year. SPG was forecast in 2021 to handle 4.6 million of the shipment yardstick called twenty-foot equivalent units of full containers from RCEP routes, up 11.6 percent year-on-year, the company said.

SPG will also promote the sale of goods imported from other RCEP members to China by building distribution centers.

"We will focus on imported consumer goods such as cold chain products and build a premium shipping route cluster for imported consumer goods that covers RCEP members," Li said. The premium cluster means that SPG will improve its routes connecting other RCEP members with its ports, such as adding more routes to import consumer goods.

Chinese consumers are likely to reach more quality imported fruits and vegetables at good prices, he said.