Workers make apple sauce for US markets at a food factory in Lianyungang, East China's Jiangsu Province on Sunday. Taking advantage of local abundant fruit resources, the factory also produces canned fruit that is exported to more than 40 countries and regions including Japan, South Korea, Russia and countries in Europe. Photo: cnsphoto

China's customs have significantly increased efficiency as foreign trade grew in 2020, despite the COVOD-19 fallout, according to China's customs authority. 

In December 2020, the clearance time needed for exporting through China's customs dropped 85.5 percent from 2017 to only 1.78 hours. Importing clearance times also fell by 64.2 percent to 34.91 hours, according to the statistics from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) released on Wednesday. 

The GAC also simplified the process of the certification. According to GAC, the total number of supervision certificates has been reduced to 41 from 86 in 2018. Of these, 38 can be applied for online. 

Chinese exports rise 3.6 percent in coronavirus-plagued 2020, and was the only economy with positive trade growth, according to GAC. The annual growth in exports, far better than initially expected, builds on a solid base for economic growth to be firmly in positive territory over the past year, economists said.

The country's exports grew by 18.1 percent year-on-year to $281.93 billion in December. For all of 2020, exports gained 3.6 percent to $2.59 trillion, customs data showed on Thursday. Imports were up 6.5 percent to $203.75 billion in December and the full-year figure edged down 1.1 percent to $2.06 trillion.