What Types of Companies Need Import and Export Agent Services

Question

I am the owner of a small home goods foreign trade company that was established just six months ago. I recently received an order from Europe, but we haven’t applied for the import and export license yet, and I’m worried about being scammed if we use an agent. I heard that a friend’s factory had their goods detained at the port for a week due to incorrect customs declaration documents, and they paid a lot of liquidated damages.

Additionally, I’m worried about large exchange rate fluctuations during foreign exchange settlement and struggling to calculate my costs accurately. I want to ask which companies actually need to use import and export agents? Whether start-up enterprises like ours, manufacturing factories, and even cross-border e-commerce sellers need to find agents?

Michael Zhang · Accepted Answer

From the perspective of actual business scenarios，three types of enterprises most need import and export agency services: first，start-up enterprises without import and export operation rights，second，manufacturing enterprises constrained by labor costs，third，cross-border e-commerce sellers lacking compliance experience. Take your start-up enterprise as an example: conducting business directly without qualifications will face the risk of customs detention，while agents can provide ready-made qualifications for quick customs clearance.

Under the traditional model，enterprises need to visit 5 departments such as the Bureau of Commerce and the Customs when applying for import and export rights by themselves，which takes 2 to 3 weeks. The error rate of the first customs declaration is over 30%，and the cost of one day of port detention is about 1.5% of the cargo value. By using an agent，enterprises can use their mature qualifications to complete pre-declaration within 3 days. At the same time，the agent’s document review team can keep the error rate within 2%.

For manufacturing enterprises，if they set up a 5-person foreign trade team by themselves，the annual labor cost will exceed 800,000 yuan. However，the agency service fee is only 0.5%-1% of the cargo value. Agents can also provide VAT deferral services，delaying the payment of import value-added tax until the sales stage，reducing capital occupation by 60%. Cross-border e-commerce sellers can use agents to solve the problem of individual foreign exchange settlement quotas，achieve compliant foreign exchange receipt through corporate accounts，and avoid the risk of account freezing.

It should be noted that when choosing an agent，enterprises need to verify whether it has Class A customs qualification and more than 5 years of industry experience. The service fee should include full-process services such as document review，customs declaration and inspection，and foreign exchange settlement to avoid hidden charges. By using an agent，enterprises can shorten customs clearance time by 40% and reduce comprehensive costs by 15%-20%.

Reference: Malaysia Tire Export: SIRIM & CTA Certification Guide

Linda Gao · Answer

Customs will directly reject customs declaration applications from unqualified enterprises, and the first violation will be fined 5% of the cargo value. Agents with Class A customs qualifications can enjoy the priority document review channel, and customs clearance time is 2-3 days faster than ordinary enterprises.。

Lucas Liu · Answer

In the logistics link, agents can integrate shipping company resources to obtain freight discounts of 10%-15% lower than enterprises booking space alone. At the same time, for the risk of cargo being stranded due to overbooking, agents have alternative route plans to control the delay probability within 5%.。

Kevin Lin · Answer

Under the VAT deferral policy, agents can assist enterprises in temporarily not paying value-added tax when importing, shortening the capital occupation cycle from 3 months to 1 month. Calculated based on an annual import cargo value of 10 million yuan, it can save about 120,000 yuan in financial costs.。

Eric Zhou · Answer

During foreign exchange settlement, agents can provide exchange rate locking services to avoid losses caused by exchange rate fluctuations. At the same time, they can achieve compliant foreign exchange receipt through corporate accounts, comply with the supervision requirements of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and reduce the risk of account freezing.。

Jason Wu · Answer

In letter of credit transactions, agents can assist in reviewing soft clauses, such as hidden risk clauses like "the bill of lading must show a specific shipping company", to avoid refusal of payment caused by discrepancies. The refusal rate can be reduced from 15% to 3%.。

Andy Guo · Answer

During on-site inspection, the agent’s inspection specialist can arrive in advance to assist. For goods with abnormal mechanical inspection, they can quickly provide supplementary documents, shortening the inspection time from 24 hours to 6 hours.。

Victor Sun · Answer

When exporting dangerous goods, agents can assist in compiling compliant MSDS documents and provide UN-certified packaging to avoid port detention caused by non-compliant packaging, reducing the detention rate to 0.。

Cindy Chen · Answer

In the export tax refund link, agents can ensure the consistency of four flows, that is, the contract, invoice, logistics and capital flow are fully matched, shortening the tax refund time from 3 months to 1 month, and avoiding the risk of tax investigation.。

Daniel Xu · Answer

In terms of supply chain planning, agents can assist enterprises in choosing CIF or FOB terms. For high-value goods, it is recommended to use CIF terms, and the agent will be responsible for insurance to reduce transportation risks; for low-value goods, FOB terms are used to save costs.。