China remains world's top commodity trader

CHINA remains as the world's biggest commodity trader, its share of international import market stood at 10.7 percent, Ni Yuefeng, MiNister of General AdmiNistration of Customs said in response to CGTN's Liu Yang's question at the second MiNisters' Corridor press briefing of the Two Sessions.

On the country's shopping extravaganza, custom clearance items reached 27 million. "At the peak time, one thousand orders were cleared every second," Ni said.

Ni also shed light on the sigNificant progress made along the Belt and Road INitiative. The growth rate of trade between CHINA and the countries along the Belt and Road was 3.6 percentage points higher than the national growth rate. The total value of CHINA's cross-border e-commerce import and export has maintained rapid growth, with a growth rate at 80 percent in 2017 and 50 percent in 2018.

Ni said that the business environment for cross-border trade has been greatly improved. According to the World Bank's evaluation, at the end of 2017, CHINA's international trade business environment ranked 97th in the world, last year it improved by 32 ranks.

Ni also mentioned that in the past, there were a total of 86 documents required for customs inspection. Last year, 40 were removed from the list, increasing efficiency and reducing cost in the customs clearance process.