10 innovative achievements of China's free trade zones in 2018

2. Shaanxi's Xi'an introduces 'manifest merging', a new customs clearance model

For a long time, every carriage of a freight train needed its own manifest, which was accompanied by a customs declaration form, to clear customs.

To save the time and costs required for companies to ship bulk goods by rail, Xi'an International Trade and Logistic Park, a district of Xi'an Free Trade Zone, and Xi'an Customs introduced a new customs clearance model known as "manifest merging" in May 2018.

Under this model, goods with the same product name, specification, contract, enterprise, batch and category are allowed to use a single manifest to clear customs.

The measure, as an institutional innovation in the field of trade facilitation in China, saves customs clearance fees, shortens customs clearance time, greatly improves the efficiency of customs clearance, and promotes the trade facilitation of goods in inland areas, Jiang Yumei, a researcher, said.