Liangjiang holds NCD Convention promotion event

A promotional event for the United Nations Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents (NCD Convention) was held in Chongqing Liangjiang New Area on June 1 to promote cross-border trade.

The NCD Convention, adopted during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Dec 15, 2025, is scheduled to open for signature in Accra, Ghana, in October 2026, and will become effective on the 180th day following the ratification by the 10th signatory.

The convention will help fill the international regulatory gap concerning the property rights of land transport documents, establish a more unified and efficient regulatory framework for cross-border trade financing, and enhance global supply chain stability.

The Negotiable Cargo Documents Public Service Platform was also launched, facilitating the one-stop issuance, circulation, pledging, and release of NCD documents by integrating systems across cargo owners, finance, and warehousing sectors.

The platform will reduce document issuance and circulation time from two days to two hours and cut financing approval times from nearly a month to three days, boosting the efficiency of goods turnover and trade financing.

A local official said the platform has issued 39 NCD documents, and its future developments will include integrating customs, taxation, and foreign exchange data to further enhance the cross-border cargo rights management service system.

In collaboration with the China International Freight Forwarders Association, Chongqing signed a trial agreement with 15 organizations from Guizhou, Xizang, and Sichuan, focusing on cross-regional promotion and mutual recognition of documents, financial empowerment and product innovation, and insurance protection and risk coverage.

Chongqing has been a pioneer in this field, having issued the world's first railway bill of lading international letter of credit in 2017 and concluding China's first railway bill of lading property rights dispute case in 2020.

Chongqing plans to enhance the functionality of relevant public service platforms, cultivate competitive market-issuing entities, and promote the adoption of documents by transitioning from paper to digital formats.