Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

A TOTAL of 59.1 tons of imported duty free commodities from Singapore, in three batches, were transited from Shenzhen airport to Sanya, Hainan Province, recently under the supervision of customs, marking the official operation of the air-land transit passage for imported duty free commodities.

The opening of the passage will stimulate the domestic purchase of foreign goods, and play a driving role in people, commodity and fund flows in Hainan Free Trade Port.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still grim around the world, and the implementation of the policy that raises offshore duty-free shopping to 100,000 yuan (US$15,444) per person per year and expands the categories of duty-free products, the consumption of duty-free commodities is shifting from overseas to the domestic market.

Statistics showed average daily sales of duty-free products reached 120 million yuan in the second half of 2020 since the policy was implemented from July 1, double the volume of the same period in 2019, according to statistics released by the Shenzhen airport.

The sales volume of duty-free commodities in Hainan is expected to reach more than 100 billion yuan in 2022.

In 2020, the international goods that Shenzhen airport handled increased by 30 percent year on year to 460,000 tons.