Tianjin Free Trade Zone to build a wine warehouse and trading hub

Northern China’s only free trade zone is set to build a wine exhibition and storage centre to take advantage of rising wine imports to the area, including Beijing.

The Dongjiang Free Trade Port Zone, part of the Tianjin Pilot Free Trade Zone, has finished building its 26,009-square-metre wine warehouse and trading centre, officials said this week.

The new nine-level wine exhibition centre is combined with a three-level professional wine storage to ‘meet the increasing needs at the Tianjin Port’, according to local newspaper.

Officials expect the building to open by the end of October.

Tianjin Pilot Free Trade Zone is expected to offer consumers in Northern China, especially the close to Beijing, cheaper imported products including wines, fruits and dairy products, said officials.

Tianjin free trade zone is also one of the key areas for the Chinese government to test the ‘cross-border online shopping’ sales model.

The model represent the government’s latest effort to regulate the country’s ‘Hai Tao’ - online overseas shopping - where consumers avoid import taxes.

One of China’s biggest online retailers, JD.com, last month signed a ‘strategic agreement’ with Tianjin Free Trade Zone to further develop its direct import business, according to the official website of Tianjin Free Trade Zone.

The agreement is expected to benefit JD.com’s fast-developing direct wine import business, said the retailer.

The ‘China (Tianjin) Pilot Free Trade Zone’ is currently the only official free trade zone established by the Chinese government in North China - the area ‘north of Yangtze River’, said officials.

Established in April 2015, the free trade zone covers 119.9 square kilometres and includes three key areas — Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Dongjiang Free Trade Port Zone and Binhai New Area Central Business District.