Residents buy goods at the cross-border e-commerce exhibition area at the fifth China-Arab States Expo in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on Sunday. Photo: VCG

 In a fresh move to boost the cross-border e-commerce sector, which has bucked the global trend amid the raging pandemic, Chinese authorities have further optimized the cross-border e-commerce retail import list to add more goods, enriching the options in the domestic market to meet rising consumer demand.

Starting from March 1, a total of 29 items including ski equipment, tomato juice and golf equipment will be added to the list, according to a notice posted on the website of the Ministry of Finance on Monday.

"The newly added items are basically goods that have become more popular among Chinese consumers who can now make a purchase via cross-border e-commerce more conveniently under the new favorable policy," Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times.

The list adjustment will not only help enrich domestic market supply and satisfy consumer demand, but also promote the sharing of opportunities by more countries in the Chinese market, Gao noted.

The list of cross-border e-commerce retail imports is managed by a positive list. Since its release in 2016, the list has been adjusted several times, and the number of items has continued to increase and the categories have become more abundant.

China has ramped up efforts in fostering a favorable environment for the development of cross-border e-commerce by implementing favorable policies over recent years. Along with including more goods in its cross-border e-commerce retail import list, the country has further expanded the scope of cross-border e-commerce retail import pilot zones.

In early February, China's State Council issued a statement approving the establishment of more cross-border e-commerce pilot zones in 27 cities and regions, including Erdos in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Yangzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province, bringing the overall tally of pilot zones to 132, covering almost all provincial-level regions in China from coastal industrial powerhouses to inland areas.

In 2021, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports climbed 15 percent year-on-year to 1.98 trillion yuan ($312.6 billion), official data showed, with related pilot zones playing a significant role in spurring the growth.