Over 210 million yuan ($31.34 million) in imported and exported goods in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province, benefited from reduced tariffs in the first five months of this year as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement took effect.

Yiwu Customs issued 1,340 RCEP certificates of origin over the past five months, which is expected to reduce import tariffs by more than 2.1 million yuan for local enterprises in the destination country.

Zhang Jinping, manager of Yiwu Wenyuan Stationery Co, said the company's stationery products now have more competitive prices in the international market, as the tax rate for exports to Japan has been reduced from the original most-favored-nation tariff rates of 4.8 percent to 3.9 percent with the RCEP certificate of origin.

From January to May this year, the company has applied for 27 RCEP certificates of origin from Yiwu Customs. Its 5.76 million yuan in goods can enjoy about 51,000 yuan in tariff concessions from the importing country, according to Zhang.

In order to provide better services for local enterprises, Yiwu Customs has launched an online system to automatically review the certificate of origin and promote self-service printing of the certificates to eliminate the need for face-to-face meetings and raise administrative efficiency. It also provided online and offline meetings with various government departments to promote polices related to free trade agreements.