The value of cross-border e-commerce trade in Ningbo airport stands at 135 million yuan from January to May, 4.5 times the amount recorded in the same period last year. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn]

The value of cross-border e-commerce trade in Ningbo airport stood at 135 million yuan ($19.56 million) from January to May, 4.5 times the amount in the same period last year, according to local customs.

The number of trade deals also saw a 13.7-fold increase year-on-year to 1.2756 million despite a shrinking number of international flights due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Imports were valued at 112 million yuan and exports stood at 22.9722 million yuan in the first five months of this year. 

The main imports and exports included clothes, shoes and cosmetics, and major trading partners included the US, Russia, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium. 

These strong results are due to a combination of several factors, including efforts by the local customs to make use of the logistical resources of nearby cities like Shanghai and Hangzhou.

Another key factor is the airport's streamlined approval procedures for cross-border e-commerce. 

The time needed for customs clearance in the airport has been reduced by three or four hours, which has saved cross-border e-commerce enterprises at least one third of labor costs, according to Niu Gang, manager of a local e-commerce company. 

To improve the process of importing goods, the airport customs has cancelled preliminary commodity filing, streamlined procedures in the warehouse, reduced the number of application materials needed by enterprises, and improved the efficiency of commodity sorting and tallying. 

As for the export process, the airport has optimized its supervisory system and custom clearance procedures. The process for enterprises to declare goods without a tax refund has been simplified as well, and low-risk parcels are now checked at random, rather than being scanned one by one.