Guangdong Customs announced 20 new initiatives to streamline cross-border trade and customs cooperation across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area at a news conference in Guangzhou on Thursday, targeting faster clearance times and deeper regulatory alignment with the two special administrative regions.
The initiatives cover five areas: integrated development, science and innovation, new business forms and models, the dual-circulation development framework, and major cooperation platforms.
Speaking at the news conference, Zhang Geping, director of the Guangdong Sub-Administration of Customs, laid out the goals of the initiatives and the context in which they operate.
Trade volume across the nine mainland cities of the GBA surpassed 9 trillion yuan ($1.32 trillion) in 2025, and reached a record 3.4 trillion yuan in the first four months of this year, up 18.4 percent year-on-year, said Zhang, adding that the region contributed a quarter of China's total foreign trade growth over the period.
The new measures include expanding the "one document, dual declaration" mechanism, which allows enterprises to submit a single declaration valid across both regions, cutting declaration time by half. The cross-border single-lock supervision system will also be broadened, reducing customs clearance time for freight by 30 percent, Zhang said.
