Since the beginning of this year, the customs department of Harbin in China's northernmost Heilongjiang province has been conducting a series of reform policies to improve the business environment, which has benefited local enterprises by cutting logistics costs and customs clearance time.

This year, Harbin realized that freight for the domestic section of the China-Europe Express train was not included in the duty-paid value to reduce the import tax base.

The policy has reduced the negative costs of corporate logistics customs duties by about 26 percent. 

From January to July, the value of goods approved by Harbin Customs for tax reduction and exemption was $11.14 million, and tax reductions and exemptions totaled 14.06 million yuan.

In combination with various customs clearance facilitation measures such as advance declaration and summary taxation, Harbin Customs has achieved a significant reduction in the amount of time needed for the customs clearance of goods. 

In June, time needed for the customs clearance of imports and exports in the jurisdiction was reduced by 76.75 percent compared with the overall import customs clearance time in 2017, and overall export customs clearance time was reduced by 99.20 percent.

To facilitate cross-border e-commerce and improve transportation, Harbin Customs supports the new "China-Europe Express+bonded goods" and "China-Europe Express+cross-border e-commerce" business channels.

From January to July, the Harbin Railway Freight Port supervised a total of 76,831 tons of cargo on the Harbin-Europe Express, and the total amount of supervised cargo was valued at $200.07 million.