Customs-related meetings of APEC open in Dalian

China

Customs-related meetings of APEC open in Dalian

2026-08-19 16:08 Last Updated At：17:07

The series of customs-related meetings, as part of the ongoing Third APEC Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM3) and related meetings, opened in Dalian, a coastal city in northeast China's Lianing Province, on Wednesday.

The SOM3 and related meetings are scheduled for Aug 17 to 28 in Dalian.

The seminar on Wednesday gathered more than 150 representatives from customs, relevant international organizations and authorized economic operator (AEO) enterprises in 13 APEC economies and focused on empowering small and medium-sized enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region and building a stable and resilient Asia-Pacific supply chain framework.

"Past experience has fully demonstrated that supply chain bottlenecks can transmit cross-border impacts in a matter of days. Very often, it is the small and medium-sized enterprises, the SMEs, that disproportionately bear the brunt. Therefore, strengthening SME trade resilience is not merely a technical matter for customs, but also a strategic necessity to safeguard inclusive growth, preserving millions of jobs, and upholding the rule-based multilateral trading system," said Guo Xueyan, chairperson of the APEC Sub-Committee on Customs Procedures, and also director general of the International Cooperation Department of the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC).

China's customs is actively supporting more small and medium-sized enterprises to enjoy the advantages of the AEO program, which is an important institutional arrangement advocated by the World Customs Organization to promote global trade security and convenience, and serves as a "Green Pass" for global trade, according to participants at the event. "We have continuously expanded the list of facilitation measures and introduced 45 measures in five major categories, including lowering inspection rates, reducing frequency of supervisory moves, and giving priority to handling procedures. For instance, the average inspection rate of AEO enterprises has been 20 percent lower than that of the other enterprises, and the average customs clearance time for imports of AEO enterprises has been 34 percent shorter than that of the other enterprises," said Lin Jiantian, director general of GACC's Department of Enterprise Management and Audit-Based Control.

Bogota residents express gratitude to China's quake relief supplies for Colombia

Residents from Colombian capital city of Bogota expressed their gratitude to China's humanitarian aid supplies for the country's quake-affected communities after a shipment of 80-tonne relief supplies arrived on Tuesday.

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck western Colombia on Aug 10. The death toll from the quake had risen to 304, with 4,548 people injured and 426 others missing, the country's disaster management agency said Tuesday.

The items, including generators, mobile water purification vehicles, medical disinfection gears, solar-powered lights, tents, and blankets, are urgently needed in the country which is facing the enormous challenge of relief and reconstruction.

"This is excellent. The earthquake was devastating and we are thankful to China and everyone who is helping and putting their grain of sand," said Raimundo Montemiranda, a security guard.

"Thankful to this help, and any help is going to be helpful from people and countries. This is solidarity and the unity of the world," said Eduardo Prieto, an insurance salesman.

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella said Monday night that about one-third of Colombia had been affected by the quake, which was centered in San Jose del Palmar in the department of Choco.

He said preliminary estimates put direct economic losses from the earthquake at nearly 30 trillion Colombian pesos (about 9.6 billion U.S. dollars), including 24.5 trillion pesos in building damage and 5.5 trillion pesos in infrastructure damage.

Domestic and international humanitarian aid are both keeping pouring into the hardest-hit areas while search and rescue teams are still working in places where people may remain trapped under the rubble.