Seizing the opportunity of institutional opening-up and creating new advantages for an outward oriented economy - Observation of Shandong's fourth anniversary of seizing the RCEP opportunity

On January 1, 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) officially came into effect and was fully implemented in 15 member countries on June 2, 2023. As a milestone achievement of China's institutional opening-up in recent years, RCEP is currently the world's most populous, diverse member structure, largest economic and trade scale, and most promising free trade agreement. With the continuous expansion of tariff reductions in RCEP and the further improvement of enterprises' ability to apply agreement provisions such as cumulative rules of origin, policy dividends are also being continuously released. Against the backdrop of increasing uncertainty and instability in the current international economic situation, what are the new changes in the effectiveness of Shandong enterprises' utilization of RCEP? What impact does RCEP have on the industrial and supply chains of Shandong enterprises?

Expand the scope of tax reduction, promote enterprise diversification and market expansion

On December 28, 2025, at the Rizhao Customs clearance hall under Qingdao Customs, Rizhao Jinhe Boyuan Biochemical Co., Ltd. applied for three Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) certificates of origin for citric acid exported to Indonesia.

After 5 rounds of tax reduction, the tariff reduction for our exported citric acid in Indonesia has reached 2.5 percentage points, which is even greater than the reduction in the China ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. With the price advantage brought by tariff reduction, we are confident in stabilizing export orders and continuously expanding export markets, "said Zhao Wenjuan.

Tariff concessions are the most important institutional opening-up achievement of RCEP in the field of goods trade. Although the China ASEAN Free Trade Agreement has been implemented for many years, dump trucks are not on Indonesia's tariff reduction list. Under RCEP, the import tariff rate for dump trucks exported by the company can be reduced from 5% to zero when cleared in Indonesia. ”Zhang Hongrui, a document officer at FAW Jiefang Qingdao Automobile Co., Ltd., said.

Since March 2025, FAW Jiefang Qingdao Automobile Co., Ltd. has actively explored the Southeast Asian market under the technical guidance of Qingdao Customs and Shandong Provincial Council for the Promotion of International Trade, utilizing the policy dividends brought by RCEP tariff reductions. In the first 11 months of 2025, the company applied for 86 RCEP certificates of origin and exported goods worth over 300 million yuan.

The certificate of origin is an important document for enterprises to enjoy tariff reductions under RCEP. Qingdao Customs and Shandong Provincial Council for the Promotion of International Trade have promoted information sharing and mutual recognition in accordance with the requirement of "efficiently completing one thing". They have pioneered a new model of mutual recognition of origin certificate management information in China, achieving "one-time verification, one-time determination, and integrated prevention" for customs and trade certificate processing, and reducing 361 inspections involving enterprises in total.

Due to the needs of foreign customers, we apply for different certificates of origin from customs and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, "said Zheng Hongyang, the manager of the Logistics Document Department of Shandong Zhongdi Import and Export Co., Ltd. Customs and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade mutually recognize the results of origin verification, effectively solving the problem of different units conducting repeated inspections on enterprises for the same matter and improving our efficiency in applying for certificates of origin.

According to statistics, since the implementation of RCEP, as of November 2025, the customs and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in Shandong Province have issued 777000 RCEP certificates of origin, with a total export value of 187.24 billion yuan. Among them, in the first 11 months of 2025, the customs and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in Shandong Province issued a total of 213000 RCEP certificates of origin, with an export value of 49.21 billion yuan, an increase of 6% year-on-year.

Strengthening institutional innovation and benefiting multi sector enterprises with policy dividends

Recently, in the trade department office of Qingdao Sanshan Electromechanical Technology Development Co., Ltd., Dai Yunxia, the general manager of the company's trade department, was holding three printed copies of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) declaration of origin and signing them.

This is the RCEP Declaration of Origin issued for the rope net swing sent by the company to Australia. ”Dai Yunxia introduced that with this statement independently issued by the enterprise, Australian customers can enjoy zero tariff treatment when importing goods through customs clearance.

Before the RCEP came into effect, the rope net swings exported by this company could enjoy zero tariff treatment with the certificate of origin of the China Australia Free Trade Agreement. After the RCEP comes into effect, enterprises applying to become customs approved exporters can not only continue to enjoy zero tariff treatment, but also independently declare their benefits to arrange production and shipment more flexibly.

As a high standard economic and trade rule, RCEP not only reduces the tariff costs and trade barriers of cross-border trade between member countries, but also introduces a series of facilitation measures such as approved exporter's declaration of independent origin, "6-hour customs clearance", back-to-back origin certificates, etc., promoting low-cost and efficient flow of goods and manufacturing raw materials among member countries.

Since the RCEP came into effect, Chinese customs have gradually allowed the import of fresh durians from Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia that meet relevant requirements. Our company is keeping up with favorable policies and has recently signed a contract with a well-known Malaysian brand to import durian products worth 30 million US dollars in the next 3 years. ”Jiao Junji, Chairman of Asepu (Qingdao) Investment Development Group Co., Ltd., said.

Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport is the largest designated port for the import and export of rough diamonds in northern China. Recently, 1023.9 carats of rough diamonds declared for import by Linyi Blue Rose Huaxing Diamond Jewelry Co., Ltd. were unloaded from a Korean Air passenger plane.

After the opening of the RCEP new channel for importing rough diamonds at Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport, it effectively guarantees our diamond processing supply chain and ensures that the company can operate at full capacity. ”Liu Yuhang, the deputy general manager of the company who is currently handling customs clearance business, said that after the suspension of flights importing rough diamonds from traditional transit centers such as Hong Kong, our company has imported 607000 carats of rough diamonds through the RCEP new channel.

Qingdao Customs actively optimized the supervision mode of rough diamonds entering and leaving the country, implementing a single department for Kimberley declaration and import declaration, completing declaration acceptance and verification inspection in one go. The total time from declaration acceptance to cargo release does not exceed 6 hours, effectively ensuring the smooth opening of the RCEP new channel.

Rule effect release helps optimize enterprise supply chain

RCEP has effectively integrated the bilateral free trade agreements signed between China and ASEAN, as well as countries such as Australia and New Zealand, expanding the cumulative scope of origin. It not only reduces the threshold for enterprises to enjoy free trade agreements, but also connects regional industrial and supply chains, which is conducive to higher quality development of inter regional trade.

Qingdao Kaichuang Food Co., Ltd. is a leading enterprise in the export of canned fruits and vegetables in China. The company's overseas markets cover hundreds of countries and regions, with an annual export volume exceeding 100 million US dollars.

Due to production processes and supply chain requirements, the canned fruits we export to Australia need to use fruits such as passion fruit imported from Southeast Asia, "said Wang Jiashun, the head of the company's international business department. Due to the inability to meet the rules of origin of the China Australia Free Trade Agreement, the company has not been able to enjoy tariff reductions under the agreement until 2022.

After the full implementation of RCEP, we can use the cumulative rules of origin to not only obtain RCEP certificates of origin and avoid paying the 5% import tariff in Australia, but also choose more Southeast Asian tropical fruits as raw materials. ”Wang Jiashun said that with the support of favorable policies, the company's imports from ASEAN countries will increase by 27.6% year-on-year in 2025.

In recent years, some textile and clothing enterprises in Shandong have established overseas processing plants in Southeast Asia. In order to meet the requirements of free trade agreements signed separately between countries such as Vietnam and other RCEP members, Southeast Asian processing enterprises generally do not use Chinese made knitted fabrics.

Benefiting from the RCEP cumulative rules of origin, the cross-border industrial and supply chains of domestic textile fabrics and Southeast Asian textile processing have been connected. We now provide domestic knitted fabrics to overseas factories located in Southeast Asia every week. ”Li Yuqin, the head of the sales department of Qingdao Guihua Knitting Co., Ltd., said.

In order to promote the full release of policy dividends, Qingdao Customs actively carried out the "Spring Breeze Benefiting Enterprises" action of RCEP policy, established a direct notification mechanism for the utilization rate to the city, county and district governments, and jointly launched a concentrated publicity month activity with units such as commerce and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade to promote free trade agreement policies to 1766 enterprises that have not benefited and key industry enterprises, guiding 173 import enterprises to achieve "zero breakthrough" in enjoying benefits.

According to the data, from 2022 to November 2025, Qingdao Customs and Jinan Customs applied RCEP tariff rates to a total of 20.94 billion yuan worth of imported goods, reducing taxes by 840 million yuan. (Zhao Guangying, Zhu Huadong, Liu Qinglin/text)