More than 48 billion yuan (about 6.9 billion U.S. dollars) of imports and exports under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free trade agreement have been handled by the Shanghai Customs, with more than 600 million yuan of tariffs reduced, according to the Shanghai customs on Wednesday.

In the first 11 months of 2022, Shanghai's foreign trade with other RCEP members totaled 1.27 trillion yuan, accounting for 33.2 percent of its total foreign trade value.

During the period, the city's import and export value to Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) exceeded 550 billion yuan, occupying nearly half of its total foreign trade with RCEP members.

After the RCEP agreement took effect on Jan. 1, 2022, over 1,900 foreign trade enterprises in Shanghai benefited last year. Furthermore, the benefit to the city's total goods value from RCEP ranked first nationwide. Among the local enterprises, 354 forayed into overseas markets of RCEP members for the very first time, said the customs.

In 2022, the Shanghai Customs issued over 68,800 certificates of origin for goods claimed to be worth more than 81 million yuan. On Monday, the RCEP officially came into force for Indonesia, and on the same day, Shanghai issued the first RCEP certificate of origin for export to Indonesia.

Certificates of origin are documents widely used in international trade transactions. They state that the products listed have met sufficient criteria to be considered as originating in a particular country. The issuance of these certificates is widely regarded as a barometer of foreign trade.