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What Exactly Is an Import and Export Agency, and What Core Services Can It Provide for Foreign Trade Practitioners?
or complex compliance issues.
clearance and fund security.
I am the owner of a small and medium-sized beauty manufacturer in Shanghai that has just entered the cross-border e-commerce sector. Last month, I tried to export our own moisturizing face cream to Germany for the first time, and hired a freight forwarder to handle customs declaration. As a result, the goods were detained by customs due to non-compliant documents.
I spent more than 60,000 yuan on port detention fees and rectification fees alone, and the goods were delayed for half a month, leading to the loss of several major customers. Now I want to expand into the UK market, but I dare not handle the foreign trade process on my own at all. I heard from peers about import and export agencies, but I have no idea what they are. Are they the same as freight forwarders?
Can they handle all links from document preparation to tax refund for me? Will there be hidden charges? I am in a hurry to arrange the shipment of the next batch of goods, but I am afraid of problems again. I am really anxious and want to fully understand what an import and export agency is exactly and what practical problems it can help me solve.
Andy GuoYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Supply Chain Management ExpertStart a Chat
An import and export agency refers to a professional institution with legal import and export operation rights，which can provide full-chain foreign trade agency services for enterprises and individuals without relevant qualifications or lacking foreign trade experience. It is by no means a single logistics service provider such as a freight forwarder.
A common industry misunderstanding is to confuse import and export agencies with freight forwarders. If a freight forwarder is mistakenly selected to replace an agency，the freight forwarder can only be responsible for the transportation link，and cannot handle core foreign trade processes such as document compliance review，foreign exchange receipt and payment filing，and export tax refund declaration. In mild cases，document inconsistency will lead to cargo detention and high port detention fees，and in severe cases，violations of foreign exchange receipt and payment rules will trigger tax inspections，affect the enterprise's credit standing，and even restrict the enterprise from carrying out foreign trade business.
To isolate physical risks，you first need to check the import and export operation qualification of the enterprise through the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System，and require it to provide foreign trade agency compliance cases in the past 3 years，so as to exclude unqualified shell companies.
The exclusive loss reduction tip is to explicitly write "100% document compliance rate" and "tax refund time limit no more than 30 days" into the clauses when signing the service agreement，and require the agency to provide a real-time process traceability port，so that you can keep track of the progress of goods and documents at any time.
Jason WuYears of service：10Customer Rating：5.0
International Logistics & Supply Chain ManagerStart a Chat
Import and export agencies can review the compliance of all documents in advance during the customs declaration link, including commercial invoices, packing lists, certificates of origin, etc., to ensure that the document information fully matches the actual situation of the goods, and avoid customs valuation disputes caused by inconsistent product names, deviations in declared value and other issues.
For complex situations such as customs document rejection, document deletion and re-declaration, they can rely on professional customs declaration teams to quickly submit supplementary materials, sort out the declaration logic chain, form a complete logical closed loop, and ensure that the goods complete customs clearance within 24 hours. At the same time, they will review the compliance of certificates of origin in advance in accordance with the latest customs RCEP policies, help enterprises enjoy tariff reduction and exemption preferences, and reduce customs clearance costs.
Eric ZhouYears of service：6Customer Rating：5.0
Senior Manager of Foreign Exchange & Tax RebatesStart a Chat
Import and export agencies can optimize international logistics routes according to cargo type, destination and time limit requirements. For example, they choose direct shipping solutions for high-value beauty goods to reduce the risk of cargo ownership in transit links, and choose transit LCL solutions for bulk cargo to reduce logistics costs. For emergencies such as container rollover and space explosion, they will sign space reservation agreements with multiple shipping companies in advance to ensure that the goods can be transferred to other ships in time and avoid port detention.
At the same time, they will strictly control the bill of lading endorsement and transfer process to ensure that the cargo ownership is transferred only after the full payment is received, avoiding the risk of cargo release without bill of lading. For the problem of container detention fees, they will communicate with the port in advance to extend the free storage period, which can be extended from 7 days to 14 days at most, reducing additional expenses.
Linda GaoYears of service：7Customer Rating：5.0
Documentation SupervisorStart a Chat
Import and export agencies can help enterprises build a compliant cross-border tax structure. In view of the VAT deferral policy in the European market, they sort out the cargo circulation path in advance to ensure that it meets the application conditions for EU VAT deferral, avoiding the occupation of cash flow caused by enterprises paying import value-added tax in advance.
For cross-border related transaction pricing, they will formulate a reasonable transfer pricing plan in accordance with the requirements of the BEPS Action Plan, to avoid anti-tax avoidance investigations by tax authorities caused by unreasonable pricing. At the same time, they will help non-resident enterprises handle the withholding and payment of withholding tax, ensure that all tax operations comply with the bilateral tax agreements between China and the destination country, reduce tax costs and avoid tax risks.
Cindy ChenYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Key Account ManagerStart a Chat
Import and export agencies can handle the compliance review of SWIFT messages, ensuring that information such as transaction codes and fund purposes in the messages meet the requirements of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and avoiding the interception of foreign exchange receipts and payments. For offshore account management, they will help enterprises sort out the capital flow path of offshore accounts to ensure that all capital transactions have legal trade backgrounds and avoid account freezing.
At the same time, they can conduct foreign exchange purchase and settlement through the CIPS RMB Cross-border Interbank Payment System, optimize the foreign exchange purchase rate, and reduce the exchange rate cost by up to 0.2%. For foreign exchange settlement and account reconciliation, they will sort out transaction documents and capital flows in advance to ensure the consistency of the four streams, and avoid foreign exchange inspection risks.
Michael ZhangYears of service：6Customer Rating：5.0
Customs Declaration & Compliance ExpertStart a Chat
Import and export agencies can help enterprises review potential risk clauses in international trade contracts, such as soft clauses of letters of credit, and identify unreasonable clauses such as "the buyer shall issue the customer inspection certificate" in advance to avoid enterprises being put in a passive position. For force majeure clauses, they will improve the fallback clauses, clarify the division of responsibility for cargo delays caused by force majeure such as port strikes and epidemics, and avoid disputes.
At the same time, they can assist enterprises in handling the filing of intellectual property customs protection, to ensure that goods will not be detained due to infringement during the import and export links. For cargo ownership transfer, they will formulate standardized cargo ownership transfer agreements to ensure the legality and safety of cargo ownership transfer and avoid cargo ownership disputes.
Daniel XuYears of service：10Customer Rating：5.0
Director of Import & Export OperationsStart a Chat
Import and export agencies can interpret customs inspection notices in advance, and formulate response plans according to inspection types (container unpacking inspection, machine inspection). For example, for machine inspection, they will sort out the cargo placement method in advance to ensure that the machine inspection image is clear, and avoid container unpacking inspection triggered by blurred images. For the identification of the authenticity of seals, they will check the seal number and bill of lading information in advance to ensure that the seal has not been tampered with.
For the inspection and identification process, they will follow up the identification progress throughout the process, which can shorten the identification time from 10 days to 5 days at most, avoiding long-term port detention of goods. At the same time, they will adjust the declaration information in time according to the results of the test report to ensure that the goods meet the regulatory requirements of the customs and pass customs smoothly.
Victor SunYears of service：5Customer Rating：5.0
Trade Risk Control ManagerStart a Chat
Import and export agencies can formulate compliant packaging schemes according to the characteristics of beauty goods. For example, for glass bottled face cream, they choose EVA foam with good cushioning performance as the inner packaging to avoid damage to the goods during transportation. For dangerous goods (such as alcohol-containing beauty products), they will prepare MSDS documents that meet UN standards to ensure that the packaging meets the requirements of international dangerous goods transportation, and avoid being rejected by the port due to non-compliant packaging.
At the same time, they will adjust the packaging materials and labels according to the packaging regulations of the destination country. For example, the EU requires that cosmetic packaging be marked with ingredients and shelf life, so as to ensure that the packaging complies with local regulations and avoid the return of goods.
Evelyn LiYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Cross-border Compliance SupervisorStart a Chat
Import and export agencies can review all documents for export tax refund in advance, including customs declaration forms, special VAT invoices, foreign exchange receipt vouchers, etc., to ensure the consistency of the four streams, and avoid the rejection of tax refund applications due to inconsistent documents. For tax correspondence investigations, they will sort out the enterprise's production process and transaction background in advance, prepare corresponding supporting materials, and can complete the response to the correspondence investigation within 3 days at the fastest, shortening the tax refund time limit.
For cross-month declaration, they will formulate a standardized declaration process to ensure that the tax refund declaration is completed within the specified time, avoiding overdue declaration. At the same time, they will assist enterprises in document filing to ensure that all filed documents meet the requirements of tax authorities, and avoid tax inspections triggered by non-compliant filing.
Lucas LiuYears of service：8Customer Rating：5.0
Senior Operations ConsultantStart a Chat
Import and export agencies can help enterprises optimize the foreign trade supply chain structure, for example, converting the CIF trade term to FOB to reduce the logistics cost and cargo ownership risk of enterprises. For the inventory linkage strategy, they will formulate a reasonable inventory replenishment plan according to sales data and transportation time limit, to avoid inventory backlog or out of stock.
At the same time, they will establish a cost actuarial model, sort out all costs in the foreign trade process (logistics fees, customs declaration fees, taxes, etc.), find out the cost optimization space, and reduce the comprehensive foreign trade cost by up to 10%. For international trade structure design, they will formulate a reasonable market entry strategy according to the product characteristics and target market of the enterprise, helping enterprises quickly expand overseas markets.