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Foreign merchants browse goods in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, in November. (HU XIAOFEI/FOR CHINA DAILY) From a "sell global" to a "buy global" mindset, Yiwu, Zhejiang province, is set to launch a new round of international trade reforms, officials and entrepreneurs said. As a globally renowned hub for small commodities — known as the "world's supermarket" and a key supplier for Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms — Yiwu maintains trade relationships with 233 countries and regions, attracting nearly 600,000 foreign visitors annually, 15,000 of whom are long-term residents of the city.
As early as 2011, Yiwu was tasked with an overall plan for comprehensive international trade reforms. This round of reforms primarily focused on promoting exports and addressing the challenge of "sell global". After over a decade of reform practices, Yiwu has established a market procurement trade model, which has been replicated in 39 markets across 22 provincial-level regions nationwide.
The Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight train and the "Yiwu-Ningbo-Zhoushan" Grand Open Channel connect over 1,000 overseas cities, driving the development of 2.1 million small and micro enterprises and providing jobs for 32 million. Benefiting from these reforms, Yiwu has grown from a county-level city into a type-II large city with a permanent population of nearly 2 million.
Its export scale has increased from one-thousandth of the national total to one-fiftieth, and its express delivery volume has grown nearly 30 fold in the past decade, accounting for one-twelfth of the national total. The State Council has approved an overall plan for deepening comprehensive international trade reforms in the city, according to a circular released on Dec 11. At a news conference on Dec 24, Li Jun, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said the plan outlines a vision to promote reforms in Yiwu through further opening-up, along with initiatives such as innovating market procurement trade mechanisms, promoting import trade development, enhancing the functionality of comprehensive bonded zones and strengthening cross-border e-commerce regulations.
"The new round of reforms is positioned as 'deepening comprehensive reform of international trade in Yiwu', with the keyword being 'deepening'," Li said. "This indicates that the new round of reforms builds on the foundation of the previous reforms rather than starting from scratch. Regardless of the phase, the core theme has always been small commodity trade, focusing on serving small and medium-sized business entities.
" Li added: "The previous reforms emphasized export trade, addressing the issue of 'sell global'. Yiwu's exports grew from approximately 20 billion yuan ($2.73 billion) in 2010 to over 500 billion yuan in 2023, an increase of more than 24 fold, contributing significantly to stabilizing foreign trade.
However, the import-to-export ratio in Yiwu remains about 1:10, necessitating further reforms in the import sector. This new round of reforms will prioritize imports, focusing on 'buy global' while iterating and deepening 'sell global,' ultimately achieving 'buy global and sell global'." Promoting Belt and Road cooperation and high-quality development of the China-Europe freight train network, the small commodity hub is slated to further contribute to advancing China's dual circulation strategy, which integrates domestic and global markets and supports efforts to build China into an even stronger trading nation, the circular noted.
The plan explicitly states that cross-border e-commerce rules should better reflect the interests of small businesses and platforms, accelerating alignment with international standards such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in areas like data flow, product traceability, electronic signatures, dispute resolution, intellectual property protections and consumer rights safeguards. "Yiwu receives a large number of foreign traders every year. From January to November 2024,514,600 foreign traders entered Yiwu, a 55 percent increase compared to the previous year, with a projected total of 570,000 for 2024, marking a new high.
To provide convenience for foreign traders in terms of entry, residence, healthcare and payments, we have integrated reforms across multiple departments, including public security, technology, human resources and commerce. This systematic planning aims to facilitate foreign investment and business operations in China," Li said. A foreign merchant (right) purchases sporting goods in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, in January.
SHI BUFA/FOR CHINA DAILY Yiwu Party Secretary Wang Jian said that as a preliminary effort to promote imports, Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Co was selected as the sole pilot enterprise. On Dec 25, the first import transaction of items listed on the positive list, such as toys, was completed, marking a breakthrough in accelerating import trade development. The city aims to achieve an import scale of 100 billion yuan by the end of this year and exceed 300 billion yuan by 2030.
The launch ceremony for Yiwu's innovative import trade pilot project and the first transaction under the positive list was held at Yiwu China Imported Commodities Market. "At the ceremony, a new exhibition hall for the pilot project's goods opened. The entire hall is organized based on the 28 major categories in the positive list, featuring over 160 SKUs (stock keeping units) from the initial trial phase," said Chen Xiang, general manager of Yiwu China Commodity City Import and Export Co.
"Currently, we are considering using Commodity City as a pilot unit to advance digital regulatory platforms and test positive list imports. Once conditions are mature, more goods will be included on the list," said Li Jun. "The new pilot's exhibition hall allows both wholesale and retail.
According to pilot regulations, our company is the sole import entity. All imported goods must go through the company for Customs declarations and clearance. Once cleared, the goods are distributed at our Imported Commodities Market, where they are sold wholesale and then further distributed by our wholesalers," Chen said.
From January to November 2024, Zhejiang province achieved 493.14 billion yuan in market procurement exports, a year-on-year increase of 13.2 percent, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the national share and contributing 19.
5 percent to Zhejiang's export growth. At the same time, market procurement exports accounted for more than 80 percent of Yiwu's total exports, serving as the cornerstone of Yiwu's foreign trade and a significant growth driver for the province. "There are pain points and challenges in traditional imports, such as improving Customs clearance efficiency," Chen said.
"Through the pilot project, we have enhanced efficiency and reduced Customs clearance times. Moreover, Yiwu's role as a trade platform helps foreign high-quality imports reach a broader domestic market, smoothing the supply chain." Wang said: "Yiwu will shoulder the mission of 'testing systems for the nation, building platforms for openness and seeking development for the region'.
The focus will be on solving five key issues — the difficulty of importing daily consumer goods, insufficient digital trade capabilities of export enterprises, high costs and weak resilience of logistics channels, inefficiencies in trade settlement and limited space for new business models. By addressing these challenges, we aim to turn more reform results into tangible benefits for market entities and development dividends." Wang added that innovative pilots like the positive list trial are part of the broader reform strategy to expand imports and enhance domestic circulation.
"By fostering a dual-cycle model, we aim to integrate imported goods into the domestic market more effectively, ultimately stimulating domestic demand and consumption," said Wang. According to the Yiwu Bureau of Commerce, in recent years, Yiwu has resolutely promoted high-level opening-up. While maintaining high-quality export growth, it has accelerated the development of import platforms such as Yiwu Comprehensive Bonded Zone and the Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight trains.
Relying on its market advantages, Yiwu has proactively expanded imports to meet the growing domestic demand for high-quality foreign products. From January to November 2024, the city's imports reached 71.93 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19 percent, accounting for 77.
5 percent of Zhejiang's import growth. Yiwu has established five product categories, each exceeding 5 billion yuan in value, including cosmetics, health-related products and nuts. The city was expected to complete imports totaling around 80 billion yuan in 2024.
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