Customs officials examine shoes to be exported from Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/taizhou.com.cn]

Tazihou's import and export volume amounted to 239.94 billion yuan ($36.9 billion), up 26.4 percent year-on-year, 4 percentage points higher than the provincial average, according to Taizhou Customs.

Specifically, its exports soared by 24.8 percent to 219.71 billion yuan while the imports expanded 46.6 percent to 20.23 billion yuan.

Cai Rongjuan, an official at Taizhou Customs, attributed the fast growth of the city's foreign trade in the previous year to the trial run of a new trade model.

Goods worth 12.97 billion yuan were exported from Taizhou under the market procurement trade model in 2021. 

In mid-September 2020, 17 markets across the nation, including the Luqiao daily necessities and plastic products trading center in Taizhou, were designated as national pilot zones for market procurement trade.

Taizhou had trade links with 213 countries and regions worldwide in the past year. Its exports to the European Union, the United States, Latin America and ASEAN accounted for 59 percent of the city's total.

Robust growth was seen in the exports of commodities like automobiles, auto parts, motorcycles, cosmetics and skin care products.

Japan was the city's largest source of imports. In the past year, Taizhou imported 5.82 billion yuan worth of goods from Japan, up 90.1 percent year-on-year.