China will work with other Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation economies to better align customs rules on cross-border e-commerce, green trade and digital trade to improve regional connectivity and trade facilitation, the country's top customs official said on Thursday.
Speaking at the 2026 APEC Customs Business Dialogue during the ongoing third APEC Senior Officials' Meeting, which runs from Monday through Aug 28 in Dalian, Liaoning province, Sun Meijun, minister of the General Administration of Customs, called on APEC economies to strengthen infrastructure connectivity through the joint development of smart ports and greater sharing of experience in developing green ports and low-carbon logistics.
"Closer cooperation is also needed on technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to make customs supervision smarter, more targeted and more efficient," she said.
According to customs data, China's trade with other APEC economies reached 18.03 trillion yuan ($2.68 trillion) in the first seven months of 2026, up 21 percent year-on-year and outpacing the country's overall goods trade growth during the same period.
As businesses face increasingly complex supply chains, rapid technological changes and growing uncertainty in the global trading environment, Eduardo Pedrosa, executive director of the Singapore-based APEC Secretariat, said customs authorities in the APEC region must evolve beyond their traditional role as regulators and become strategic partners in supporting economic growth.
