In practice, many occasions necessitate involving an agent in your transactions. For example, attracted by Chinese market, you want to give your product a quick try. Then you will need an Importer of Record (IOR) to help you import the products into China simply because you are not qualified to do so. The situation applies to export from China as well, where you need an Exporter of Record (EOR) to source something from China.

A legitimate IOR/EOR should be a China based legal person who has properly registered itself with a number of regulatory bodies such as Customs, Quarantine, and Tax authorities, and possesses the valid licenses and certificates for conducting import & export business.

The essence of having a local agent is reflected not only in logistic aspect such as Customs and Quarantine procedures but also in the cross-border movement of funds. For instance, foreign exchange is rigorously controlled in China, an EOR or IOR helps settle your payables or receivables in compliance with foreign exchange control.

In addition to general trade, IOR and EOR service plays an important role in special trade patterns such as:

• Temporary admission, where you bring something into China for a short period of time, then return it back when the time is due. Commonly used when you take your products to an exhibition or for other marketing purposes in China;
• A triangle trade, where company A purchases some products from company B, and wants B to deliver the products directly to company C. Of the three companies, at least one is not located in China;
• A processing trade, where things are imported or exported to undergo a certain process of production. After the process, the things are returned or shipped to a 3rd party.

In short, as the local IOR or EOR we enable you to transform your business plan into reality.

Back to Top

As its name indicates, a Customs broker is an entity licensed by Customs authority to handle Customs formalities on behalf of others. When businesses import or export goods, they often hire a Customs broker to help clear their goods through Customs, which usually includes tracking shipments, filing customs entries, and paying duties and fees.

There are thousands of kinds of commodities moving around in global trade. Trade controls imposed on imports and exports can vary remarkably from one type of commodity to another. For instance, food and agricultural imports are usually required to undergo safety and quarantine inspections while industrial products and consumer goods may need to get CCC or other types of certification to enter Chinese market. Specialized in certain types of goods, a Customs broker can be more familiar with the controls on those products, more knowledgeable about how to comply with the regulations, and more experienced in implementation. Leveraging brokers’ specialties and economy of scale can save you the trouble of reinventing the wheel.

There are a lot of Customs brokers with different levels of expertise and compliance performance. For instance, merely in Shanghai Customs district, there are more than eighty thousand Customs brokers on the market.

A Customs broker acts on behalf of the importer/exporter but the importer/exporter is ultimately responsible to Customs for what is declared by the broker. That is, if the broker makes a mistake or an error, Customs authorities will attribute the responsibility for it to the importer/exporter. Actually, broker compliance is a real concern in practice because brokers charge their customers by the number of entries they file to Customs rather than by their compliance performance and quality is often sacrificed on the altar of quantity.

Stemming from compliance consulting service, we take compliance as the overarching rule. We help you seek and screen Customs brokers with compliance acumen, manage the broker to learn the details of your transactions first and customize the brokerage solution to fit the unique characteristics of your business.

Back to Top

Regulatory compliance has always been a major concern for companies. Compliance professionals need to keep pace with the fast evolving laws and regulations that are relevant to the company and its business. For instance,

• a revision to the tariff schedule may increase the Customs duty imposed on your import, which significantly impacts your financial performance;
• an update of the dual-use control list may add your product as a controlled item, which brings additional compliance requirements such as license application and internal compliance program development;
• an announcement of new sanction measures may designate your customer as an entity of concern, which restricts or even prohibits your further transactions with the entity;
• a reformed industrial policy may alter the rules of game, which eliminates your established advantage.

Recognizing that many companies are manually tracking regulatory changes and compliance teams are struggling to select and prioritize the regulatory news that is coming in a large volume, we dedicate ourselves to alleviating the situation through our expert-driven regulatory monitoring service, where we not only monitor and report the regulatory changes but also provide insights and interpretation in the context of your businesses.

Back to Top