Ruili port in Southwest China's Yunnan Province links the country with Myanmar. Photo: IC

Ruili Port in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, the largest land port on the China-Myanmar border, said so far it has seen no impacts on cross-border trade following Myanmar's military announcement of a state of emergency on Monday. 

"So far, the operations at Ruili Port are continuing as normal. We have not seen the impacts of Myanmar's domestic situation on bilateral trade," a local government official surnamed Yue who is responsible to speak to media told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

Since the coronavirus outbreak, the port only allows cargo transfer instead of personnel exchanges. "Drivers from China and Myanmar would stop the trucks at designated place and be replaced by the other country's driver to cross the border and deliver the goods," Yue said. 

Agricultural products, including sesame, onion, rice and crab, are Myanmar's major exports to China via the port, according to Yue. Daily necessaries including home appliances, hats, clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste and motorbikes are transported from China to Myanmar through the port. 

According to the statistics Ruili Port provided to the Global Times, trade value between China and Myanmar at the port fell by 17.15 percent year-on-year to about 68.85 billion yuan ($10.66 billion) in 2020 due to the impacts of the coronavirus. China's exports value to Myanmar at the port was down 5.09 percent year-on-year, and imports dived by 23.9 percent. 

The annual cargo throughput last year hit about 15.6 million tons, down 10.66 percent year-on-year from 17.46 million tons in 2019.

Located in Yunnan's Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Ruili Port became part of the Yunnan pilot free trade zone inaugurated in 2019, which is established to promote Yunnan's foreign trade and cross-border economic cooperation.