On January 18, the Information Office of the Shandong Provincial Government held a press conference to introduce Shandong's economic and social operations in 2020. The press conference pointed out that Shandong's foreign trade continued to maintain a good momentum of development in 2020. The import and export of goods reached 2.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.5% year-on-year. The growth rate ranked fourth among the top 10 import and export provinces and cities in the country. Ranked 6th in all provinces and cities in the country; exports were 1.31 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.3%, and the growth rate ranked second in the country; imports were 895.46 billion yuan, a decrease of 4.1%; foreign trade import and export value and export value both set annual record highs, and trade surplus 410.02 billion yuan, an increase of 1.3 times.

As a new trade format, cross-border e-commerce is developing rapidly. Last year, the overall import and export of cross-border e-commerce in Shandong Province was 13.83 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 366.2%. Among them, online shopping bonded imports were 2.25 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 484.4%; cross-border direct purchase exports were 5.04 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 101.6%. It is worth mentioning that the Qingdao Customs and Jinan Customs cross-border e-commerce B2B export supervision pilots have reached 6.34 billion yuan in just 4 months.

According to Shao Bai, the first-level inspector of Qingdao Customs, compared with traditional trade, the new trade format has the characteristics of flexibility, speed, and small parts, which is closer to the needs of consumers, and can also promote the development of related logistics, warehousing, and distribution service industries. It is a key area for the diversified development of foreign trade in the future.