In December 2001, China became the 143rd country to join the World Trade Organization. Since its accession, the nation has become the world's second-largest economy and biggest trading country.

Over the past 20 years, Yiwu, a county-level city in East China's Zhejiang province that is known as the "world's supermarket", has witnessed rapid development in foreign trade.

In 2001, not a single customs office had been established in Yiwu and the city's exporters had to handle customs clearance in either Ningbo or Shanghai.

In October 2002, the Yiwu office of Jinhua Customs was established and oversaw the export of 9,000 TEUs of containers that year. In 2004, the figure rose to 126,000 TEUs.

In 2009, Yiwu Customs was officially founded and 511,000 TEUs of containers were exported.

Over the first 10 months of this year, foreign trade in Yiwu reached 311.3 billion yuan ($48.9 billion).