Pathways for Improving the Cargo Clearance Efficiency at the Hainan Free Trade Port after Its Customs Closure

Abstract

Customs closure of the Hainan Free Trade Port is the key to implementing core policies such as "zero tariffs". The efficiency of
cargo clearance at the ports directly affects its resource allocation capability and international competitiveness. Currently, the import customs
clearance time for regular general cargo at Hainan ports is approximately 36 hours (data comes from the 2024 "Report on the Development of
Cross-border Trade Facilitation in Hainan Free Trade Port"), but the time is less than 12 hours at Singapore ports (Data comes from the 2024
"Global Logistics Performance Index Report" of the World Bank). The disparity between the two is significant. This paper combines the special policy environment after the customs closure and domestic and foreign experience, analyzes the bottleneck of customs clearance in Hainan ports from the dimensions of hardware upgrading, digital supervision, process optimization, and collaborative mechanism construction, and
proposes intelligent infrastructure, "single window" iteration, regulatory innovation, cross-departmental collaboration, and other improvement
pathways. It is expected that the customs clearance time can be shortened by more than 30%. And it aims to provide theoretical and practical
reference for optimizing the customs clearance system and helping create international and convenient trade and investment environment.