Guangzhou Customs in south China's Guangdong Province issued over 14,000 certificates of origin for goods worth a total of 4.75 billion yuan ($682 million) under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free trade agreement during the first 11 months of 2022.

During the period, enterprises declared imports totaling 5.4 billion yuan under RCEP to Guangzhou Customs, bringing the total worth of goods covered by the agreement in Guangzhou alone to over 10 billion yuan, the customs office said.

Since the RCEP agreement took effect on January 1, 2022, enterprises have benefited from lower import costs and increased export opportunities.

"With the help of the certificates of origin issued by customs, the tariff rate of our exports to Japan has been lowered from 20 percent to 14 percent, improving the competitiveness of our products," said Jiang Huimei, chief financial officer of ITP Zhengxiong Bags (Heyuan) Co., Ltd.

"In 2022, our orders saw a year-on-year increase of about 60 percent. We are producing goods at full speed to meet the needs of customers," Jiang added.

Trade between China and other RCEP members expanded 7.9 percent year on year  to 11.8 trillion yuan in the first 11 months of 2022, accounting for 30.7 percent of China's total foreign trade value, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed this week.

RCEP includes 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and represents about 30 percent of the global population, GDP and trade.

(Source: Xinhua with edits)