A bird's-eye view of the Lego-like containers at Xiamen Port, Fujian province. [Photo/WeChat account: xiamen_swj]

Statistics from the Xiamen Customs showed that from January to April, Xiamen's imports and exports with countries under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement (RCEP) increased 1.4 percent year-on-year to 93.36 billion yuan ($14 billion), which accounted for 33.9 percent of the total.

Of which, its export volume hit 38.04 billion yuan with an increase of 14 percent while its import volume reached 55.32 billion yuan, a decline of 5.8 percent.

Since the implementation of the RCEP, Xiamen's main exports of mechanical and electrical products, high-tech products, garments have benefited from significant tariff reductions since they are included in the tariff reduction list, boosting Xiamen's worldwide competitiveness.

Statistics showed that mechanical and electrical products, as well as labor-intensive products were the major exports to RCEP countries during the January-to-April period, growing 11.5 percent and 5.1 percent year-on-year to 16.7 billion yuan and 8.29 billion yuan, respectively.

Mechanical and electrical products, metal and ore sand, as well as agricultural produce were the major imports from RCEP countries during the same time period, together accounting for 55.2 percent of the total import volume.

During the same period, the city's private companies achieved a total of 31 billion yuan in import and export volume, an increase of 12 percent year-on-year.