(Yicai) July 30 -- China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports rose 10.5 percent in the first half of this year, or 4.4 percentage points higher than the increase of the country's total foreign trade, according to a spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs.

The cross-border e-commerce trade of China reached CNY1.22 trillion (USD168 billion) in the six months ended June 30, Lu Daliang said today. The figure jumped 1.2 times last year from 2018.

Booming cross-border e-commerce has created new challenges to customs regulation, Lu noted. The authority oversees more than 7 billion cross-border e-commerce and express delivery packages a year, equal to about 20 million a day, Lu pointed out.

Customs have been innovating in regulatory methods, developing and using customs clearance service systems for cross-border e-commerce while staying focused on improving efficiency, Lu said. It has also taken steps to ensure the quality of cross-border e-commerce commodities and prevent prohibited goods from entering China, Lu added.

Customs will keep improving regulatory mechanisms, favoring the development of cross-border e-commerce, according to Lu. It is researching to promote a mechanism of checking cross-border e-commerce goods for export before shipment as well as expanding pilot with cross-free trade zone return of cross-border e-commerce retail commodities for export, Lu said.

China has ranked first in total trade in goods for seven consecutive years, with it being a major trading partner of more than 150 countries and regions, while the number of foreign trade companies in the nation has nearly doubled since 2012. Its foreign trade hit a new high and exceeded CNY21 trillion (USD2.9 trillion) for the first time in the first half of this year, according to statistics from the customs administration.

Editor: Martin Kadiev