East China's Yiwu, Dubai to boost customs clearance cooperation

HANGZHOU - Merchants in the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu will enjoy more efficient customs clearance services when exporting commodities to Dubai, thanks to an agreement signed Thursday.

Yiwu's exports to Dubai should undergo customs clearance procedures in both countries. In the future, Dubai will move its services to Yiwu Port in Zhejiang province.

The agreement was signed between China's Zhejiang Provincial Seaport Investment and Operation Group and Dubai Ports World.

It aims to provide merchants with a whole set of logistics services including commodity transportation, storage and customs clearance.

"The cooperation can help improve the clearance efficiency, lower logistics costs, and promote commercial cooperation between China and countries in the Middle East, Africa and Europe," said Gao Xingfu, vice governor of Zhejiang province.

Yiwu has been known as the "world supermarket" for its wholesale goods. Data from the city's market supervision bureau showed that companies and vendors in Yiwu achieved a total turnover of almost 150 billion yuan ($23.67 billion) last year, up 8.9 percent.

Yiwu exports over 20,000 types of Christmas items to more than 100 countries and regions every year, accounting for 60 percent of the world's market share.

About 80 percent of Yiwu's exports to the Middle East go through Dubai.

Dubai Ports World is the world's fourth biggest commercial port operator, with global offices in 30 countries.