--- title: "How to screen import and export agency companies with formal qualifications and more than 10 years of practical experience?" description: "Enterprises carrying out import and export business for the first time are prone to encounter problems such as unscrupulous agencies，incomplete qualifications and hidden fees. They need to screen agencies from dimensions including qualification verification，responsibility division and risk control capability: prioritize verification of formal qualifications，require provision of practical cases，sign written agreements with clear responsibilities，and can also lock risks through performance bonds，s..." url: "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/select-legal-import-export-agencies-with-decade-plus-experience.html" language: "en" type: "Q&A" category: "General Trade Q&A" datePublished: "2026-07-17" dateModified: "2026-07-17" brand: "Zhongshen Trading China" answerCount: 8 --- # How to screen import and export agency companies with formal qualifications and more than 10 years of practical experience? ## Question I am the foreign trade head of a small manufacturing enterprise in Shanghai focusing on precision hardware fittings. We finalized our first bulk export order to Germany last week, and I am so anxious now that I can hardly sleep or eat well. We have never touched the whole import and export process before, and peers told us that there are many hidden traps in looking for agency companies. A friend once encountered an unscrupulous agency that did nothing after collecting service fees, leading to 3 days of port detention of goods and more than ten thousand yuan of port detention fees. I am also worried about encountering institutions with arbitrary hidden fees and incomplete qualifications. If customs declaration errors lead to goods seizure, we will not only have to pay fines, but also compensate customers for liquidated damages for delayed delivery, and ruin the overseas order we finally obtained. I would like to ask how to accurately find a reliable import and export agency company? ## Answers ### Answer 1 — Best Answer First of all，we need to expose three common misconceptions in the industry: first，only focus on low prices while ignoring qualifications. Many small agencies attract customers with low prices，but actually have no formal import and export operation right，second，credulously believe oral promises and fail to implement responsibility division in written agreements，third，ignore the risk control capability of agencies and only pay attention to superficial process docking. If you fall into these misconceptions，consecutive negative reactions will follow: unqualified agencies may declare customs through illegal channels，directly leading to goods seizure and port detention，and the resulting container detention fees and port detention fees are often several times the service fee，the orally promised "all-inclusive service" will be shirked when problems occur. For example，customs declaration jams caused by the agency's negligence in document review will ultimately make the cargo owner bear all losses，and even affect the enterprise's customs credit rating，leading to key inspection in future import and export activities. Three measures for physical risk isolation are required: **Prioritize verifying the agency's Registration Form of Foreign Trade Operator and Customs Declaration Entity Registration Certificate**，and verify qualifications through the official website of the General Administration of Customs，require the agency to provide practical cases of the same category of business in the past 3 years to confirm that it is familiar with the customs clearance rules of corresponding ports，clearly define the ownership of responsibilities at each node when signing a written contract，especially the compensation mechanism for abnormal situations. Exclusive loss stopping tip: You can require the agency to pay a certain proportion of performance bond，or choose an agency with a third-party supervised account，to ensure that service fees are only paid after the corresponding node service is completed，so as to avoid falling into a passive situation after paying the full amount in advance. **status:** accepted **Author:** Kevin Lin **Date:** 2026-07-17 ### Answer 2 When verifying the customs declaration qualification of the agency, you should focus on confirming whether it has AEO qualification. This qualification is assessed and issued by the General Administration of Customs, which means the agency's customs declaration error rate is less than 1%, and it can enjoy core conveniences such as priority customs clearance, reduced inspection rate and simplified document review, which can effectively shorten the customs clearance time by more than 30%. At the same time, you should require the agency to provide customs declaration form samples of the same category of business in the past 6 months, and carefully review the standardization of its document filling: for example, whether the classification of commodity codes strictly matches the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, and whether declaration elements cover all required items such as brand, specification and material, so as to avoid valuation disputes, document deletion and re-declaration or even customs seizure caused by classification errors. If the enterprise involves cross-customs district declaration business, you should additionally confirm whether the agency has the operation authority of national integrated customs clearance, to ensure that goods can realize seamless customs clearance process at any port across the country without going through repeated filing procedures. **status:** suggested **Author:** Michael Zhang **Date:** 2026-07-17 ### Answer 3 When selecting an agency, you should focus on its logistics cargo right control capability, and require the agency to provide a clear cargo right ownership agreement, to ensure that the cargo owner has absolute control over the cargo right throughout the transportation process. At the same time, you should verify the logistics cooperation resources of the agency, for example, whether it has signed long-term cooperation agreements with leading shipping companies or airlines such as Maersk and COSCO Shipping, so as to obtain preferential space and freight rates, and avoid delivery delays caused by space explosion and container rolling. In addition, you should confirm whether the agency has a perfect abnormal response plan. For example, when goods are detained at the port, can it coordinate with the port terminal to apply for extended free storage period as soon as possible, or transfer goods to a nearby bonded warehouse for temporary storage, so as to reduce container detention fees and port detention costs. If it involves the transportation of dangerous goods or special goods, you should confirm whether the agency has the logistics operation qualification and experience for the corresponding category, and can carry out packaging and transportation in strict accordance with the UN Dangerous Goods Transport Regulations. **status:** suggested **Author:** Evelyn Li **Date:** 2026-07-17 ### Answer 4 When selecting an agency, you should focus on its tax planning capability, especially the implementation capability for policies such as VAT deferment and tax difference hedging. For example, in EU export business, agencies with professional capabilities can assist enterprises to apply for VAT deferment, eliminating the need to pay import value-added tax in the importing country in advance, shortening the capital occupation cycle by 6 to 12 months, and effectively alleviating the cash flow pressure of enterprises. At the same time, you should require the agency to provide a cost hedging scheme, for example, lock the forward foreign exchange purchase rate to avoid cost increase caused by exchange rate fluctuation; make use of domestic export tax rebate policies to reasonably plan document circulation, ensure that tax rebate funds arrive in time, and improve the efficiency of capital use. In addition, you should confirm whether the agency is familiar with BEPS rules, so as to avoid tax inspection risks caused by unreasonable pricing of cross-border related party transactions, and ensure the tax compliance of enterprises. **status:** suggested **Author:** Andy Guo **Date:** 2026-07-17 ### Answer 5 When selecting an agency, you should focus on verifying its cross-border receipt and payment compliance capability, and require the agency to provide receipt and payment compliance records in the past 3 years to confirm that it has not received any early warning or penalty from the foreign exchange administration. At the same time, you should confirm whether the agency is familiar with the operation process of CIPS, and can complete RMB cross-border receipt and payment through the CIPS system, reducing exchange rate fluctuation risks and handling fee costs, and shortening the receipt and payment cycle by 1 to 2 days compared with the SWIFT system. In addition, you should require the agency to provide SWIFT message review service to ensure that the message information is completely consistent with documents such as customs declaration forms and contracts, so as to avoid payment being returned or delayed caused by inconsistent message information. If it involves receipt and payment through offshore accounts, you should confirm whether the agency has compliance experience in offshore account management, so as to avoid account freezing or cancellation caused by non-compliance. **status:** suggested **Author:** Lucas Liu **Date:** 2026-07-17 ### Answer 6 When signing a cooperation agreement with the agency, you should clarify the division of legal responsibilities for all clauses, especially the fallback clauses for soft clauses of letters of credit and force majeure events. For example, it should be clearly stated in the agreement that if losses are caused by the agency's failure to review the soft clauses of the letter of credit in time, the agency shall bear all responsibilities; in case of force majeure events, the agency shall provide written notice within 24 hours and assist the enterprise to handle relevant exemption certificates, so as to reduce the breach risk of the enterprise. At the same time, you should require the agency to provide assistance services for intellectual property customs protection filing, to ensure that the enterprise's intellectual property rights such as brands and patents are effectively protected in the import and export process, and avoid customs seizure or confiscation of goods caused by infringement. In addition, an exclusivity clause should be added to the agreement to prohibit the agency from providing the same category of agency services for the enterprise's competitors at the same time, so as to protect the enterprise's commercial secrets. **status:** suggested **Author:** Jason Wu **Date:** 2026-07-17 ### Answer 7 When selecting an agency, you should focus on verifying its export tax rebate compliance capability, and require the agency to provide export tax rebate review records in the past 3 years to confirm that it has not encountered tax correspondence investigation or tax rebate rejection. At the same time, you should require the agency to strictly implement the review standard of alignment of four flows, that is, contract flow, fund flow, goods flow and invoice flow are completely matched, so as to avoid tax correspondence investigation or delayed tax rebate caused by inconsistent four flows, and ensure that tax rebate funds arrive in the account within the specified time. In addition, you should confirm that the agency has pre-declaration verification capability, which can verify through the pre-declaration module of the tax system before formal declaration, correct errors in documents in time, and improve the pass rate of tax rebate declaration. If it involves cross-month declaration business, you should confirm that the agency has operation experience in cross-month declaration, and can reasonably plan the declaration time to avoid missing the tax rebate deadline. **status:** suggested **Author:** Daniel Xu **Date:** 2026-07-17 ### Answer 8 When selecting an agency, you should focus on its supply chain planning capability, and require the agency to provide customized supply chain solutions according to the enterprise's business scenarios. For example, for the bulk export business of small manufacturing enterprises, the agency can assist enterprises to convert CIF trade terms into FOB trade terms, transfer logistics risks to overseas customers, and reduce the logistics costs and risks of enterprises. At the same time, you should require the agency to provide a cost actuarial model to calculate all costs in the import and export process in detail, including customs declaration fees, logistics fees, taxes, agency fees, etc., to avoid hidden fees. In addition, you should confirm that the agency has an inventory linkage strategy, which can reasonably arrange the transportation and storage of goods according to the enterprise's production plan and customer's delivery requirements, reduce inventory overstock costs and delivery delay risks, and optimize the supply chain efficiency of the enterprise. **status:** suggested **Author:** Grace Wang **Date:** 2026-07-17 ## Related Categories - [Import Agency Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-import-agency/) - [Export Agency Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-export-agency/) - [Export Tax Rebate Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-export-tax-rebate/) - [Customs Declaration Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-customs-declaration/) - [Freight Forwarding Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-freight-forwarding/) - [Forex Settlement Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-forex-settlement/) - [Entrepôt Trade Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-entrepot-trade/) ## Related Resources - [Trade Services](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/services/) - [Trade Cases](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/cases/) - [Trade Wiki](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/wiki/) - [Trade Class](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/guide/) - [Global Trade Services](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/country/) ## Structured Data ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "QAPage", "inLanguage":"en", "isPartOf": { "@id":"https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/#website" }, "publisher":{ "@id":"https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/#organization" }, "mainEntity": { "@type": "Question", "name": "How to screen import and export agency companies with formal qualifications and more than 10 years of practical experience?", "text": "I am the foreign trade head of a small manufacturing enterprise in Shanghai focusing on precision hardware fittings. We finalized our first bulk export order to Germany last week, and I am so anxious now that I can hardly sleep or eat well. We have never touched the whole import and export process before, and peers told us that there are many hidden traps in looking for agency companies. A friend once encountered an unscrupulous agency that did nothing after collecting service fees, leading to 3 days of port detention of goods and more than ten thousand yuan of port detention fees. I am also worried about encountering institutions with arbitrary hidden fees and incomplete qualifications. If customs declaration errors lead to goods seizure, we will not only have to pay fines, but also compensate customers for liquidated damages for delayed delivery, and ruin the overseas order we finally obtained. I would like to ask how to accurately find a reliable import and export agency company?", "answerCount": 8, "upvoteCount": 6, "datePublished": "2026-07-17T09:40:59Z", "dateModified": "2026-07-17T10:01:15Z", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Zhongshen Trading China", "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/select-legal-import-export-agencies-with-decade-plus-experience.html" } ,"acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "First of all，we need to expose three common misconceptions in the industry: first，only focus on low prices while ignoring qualifications. Many small agencies attract customers with low prices，but actually have no formal import and export operation right，second，credulously believe oral promises and fail to implement responsibility division in written agreements，third，ignore the risk control capability of agencies and only pay attention to superficial process docking. If you fall into these misconceptions，consecutive negative reactions will follow: unqualified agencies may declare customs through illegal channels，directly leading to goods seizure and port detention，and the resulting container detention fees and port detention fees are often several times the service fee，the orally promised "all-inclusive service" will be shirked when problems occur. For example，customs declaration jams caused by the agency's negligence in document review will ultimately make the cargo owner bear all losses，and even affect the enterprise's customs credit rating，leading to key inspection in future import and export activities. Three measures for physical risk isolation are required: Prioritize verifying the agency's Registration Form of Foreign Trade Operator and Customs Declaration Entity Registration Certificate ，and verify qualifications through the official website of the General Administration of Customs，require the agency to provide practical cases of the same category of business in the past 3 years to confirm that it is familiar with the customs clearance rules of corresponding ports，clearly define the ownership of responsibilities at each node when signing a written contract，especially the compensation mechanism for abnormal situations. Exclusive loss stopping tip: You can require the agency to pay a certain proportion of performance bond，or choose an agency with a third-party supervised account，to ensure that service fees are only paid after the corresponding node service is completed，so as to avoid falling into a passive situation after paying the full amount in advance.", "upvoteCount": 6, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/select-legal-import-export-agencies-with-decade-plus-experience.html#acceptedAnswer", "datePublished": "2026-07-17T11:52:27Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Kevin Lin","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/kevin-lin/"} } ,"suggestedAnswer": [ { "@type": "Answer", "text": "When verifying the customs declaration qualification of the agency, you should focus on confirming whether it has AEO qualification. This qualification is assessed and issued by the General Administration of Customs, which means the agency's customs declaration error rate is less than 1%, and it can enjoy core conveniences such as priority customs clearance, reduced inspection rate and simplified document review, which can effectively shorten the customs clearance time by more than 30%. At the same time, you should require the agency to provide customs declaration form samples of the same category of business in the past 6 months, and carefully review the standardization of its document filling: for example, whether the classification of commodity codes strictly matches the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, and whether declaration elements cover all required items such as brand, specification and material, so as to avoid valuation disputes, document deletion and re-declaration or even customs seizure caused by classification errors. If the enterprise involves cross-customs district declaration business, you should additionally confirm whether the agency has the operation authority of national integrated customs clearance, to ensure that goods can realize seamless customs clearance process at any port across the country without going through repeated filing procedures.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/select-legal-import-export-agencies-with-decade-plus-experience.html#suggestedAnswer-2", "datePublished": "2026-07-17T11:44:22Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Michael Zhang","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/michael-zhang/"} } , { "@type": "Answer", "text": "When selecting an agency, you should focus on its logistics cargo right control capability, and require the agency to provide a clear cargo right ownership agreement, to ensure that the cargo owner has absolute control over the cargo right throughout the transportation process. At the same time, you should verify the logistics cooperation resources of the agency, for example, whether it has signed long-term cooperation agreements with leading shipping companies or airlines such as Maersk and COSCO Shipping, so as to obtain preferential space and freight rates, and avoid delivery delays caused by space explosion and container rolling. In addition, you should confirm whether the agency has a perfect abnormal response plan. For example, when goods are detained at the port, can it coordinate with the port terminal to apply for extended free storage period as soon as possible, or transfer goods to a nearby bonded warehouse for temporary storage, so as to reduce container detention fees and port detention costs. If it involves the transportation of dangerous goods or special goods, you should confirm whether the agency has the logistics operation qualification and experience for the corresponding category, and can carry out packaging and transportation in strict accordance with the UN Dangerous Goods Transport Regulations.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/select-legal-import-export-agencies-with-decade-plus-experience.html#suggestedAnswer-3", "datePublished": "2026-07-17T11:38:35Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Evelyn Li","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/evelyn-li/"} } , { "@type": "Answer", "text": "When selecting an agency, you should focus on its tax planning capability, especially the implementation capability for policies such as VAT deferment and tax difference hedging. For example, in EU export business, agencies with professional capabilities can assist enterprises to apply for VAT deferment, eliminating the need to pay import value-added tax in the importing country in advance, shortening the capital occupation cycle by 6 to 12 months, and effectively alleviating the cash flow pressure of enterprises. At the same time, you should require the agency to provide a cost hedging scheme, for example, lock the forward foreign exchange purchase rate to avoid cost increase caused by exchange rate fluctuation; make use of domestic export tax rebate policies to reasonably plan document circulation, ensure that tax rebate funds arrive in time, and improve the efficiency of capital use. In addition, you should confirm whether the agency is familiar with BEPS rules, so as to avoid tax inspection risks caused by unreasonable pricing of cross-border related party transactions, and ensure the tax compliance of enterprises.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/select-legal-import-export-agencies-with-decade-plus-experience.html#suggestedAnswer-4", "datePublished": "2026-07-17T11:24:26Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Andy Guo","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/andy-guo/"} } , { "@type": "Answer", "text": "When selecting an agency, you should focus on verifying its cross-border receipt and payment compliance capability, and require the agency to provide receipt and payment compliance records in the past 3 years to confirm that it has not received any early warning or penalty from the foreign exchange administration. At the same time, you should confirm whether the agency is familiar with the operation process of CIPS, and can complete RMB cross-border receipt and payment through the CIPS system, reducing exchange rate fluctuation risks and handling fee costs, and shortening the receipt and payment cycle by 1 to 2 days compared with the SWIFT system. In addition, you should require the agency to provide SWIFT message review service to ensure that the message information is completely consistent with documents such as customs declaration forms and contracts, so as to avoid payment being returned or delayed caused by inconsistent message information. If it involves receipt and payment through offshore accounts, you should confirm whether the agency has compliance experience in offshore account management, so as to avoid account freezing or cancellation caused by non-compliance.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/select-legal-import-export-agencies-with-decade-plus-experience.html#suggestedAnswer-5", "datePublished": "2026-07-17T11:08:23Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Lucas Liu","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/lucas-liu/"} } , { "@type": "Answer", "text": "When signing a cooperation agreement with the agency, you should clarify the division of legal responsibilities for all clauses, especially the fallback clauses for soft clauses of letters of credit and force majeure events. For example, it should be clearly stated in the agreement that if losses are caused by the agency's failure to review the soft clauses of the letter of credit in time, the agency shall bear all responsibilities; in case of force majeure events, the agency shall provide written notice within 24 hours and assist the enterprise to handle relevant exemption certificates, so as to reduce the breach risk of the enterprise. At the same time, you should require the agency to provide assistance services for intellectual property customs protection filing, to ensure that the enterprise's intellectual property rights such as brands and patents are effectively protected in the import and export process, and avoid customs seizure or confiscation of goods caused by infringement. In addition, an exclusivity clause should be added to the agreement to prohibit the agency from providing the same category of agency services for the enterprise's competitors at the same time, so as to protect the enterprise's commercial secrets.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/select-legal-import-export-agencies-with-decade-plus-experience.html#suggestedAnswer-6", "datePublished": "2026-07-17T10:30:32Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Jason Wu","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/jason-wu/"} } , { "@type": "Answer", "text": "When selecting an agency, you should focus on verifying its export tax rebate compliance capability, and require the agency to provide export tax rebate review records in the past 3 years to confirm that it has not encountered tax correspondence investigation or tax rebate rejection. At the same time, you should require the agency to strictly implement the review standard of alignment of four flows, that is, contract flow, fund flow, goods flow and invoice flow are completely matched, so as to avoid tax correspondence investigation or delayed tax rebate caused by inconsistent four flows, and ensure that tax rebate funds arrive in the account within the specified time. In addition, you should confirm that the agency has pre-declaration verification capability, which can verify through the pre-declaration module of the tax system before formal declaration, correct errors in documents in time, and improve the pass rate of tax rebate declaration. If it involves cross-month declaration business, you should confirm that the agency has operation experience in cross-month declaration, and can reasonably plan the declaration time to avoid missing the tax rebate deadline.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/select-legal-import-export-agencies-with-decade-plus-experience.html#suggestedAnswer-7", "datePublished": "2026-07-17T10:21:58Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Daniel Xu","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/daniel-xu/"} } , { "@type": "Answer", "text": "When selecting an agency, you should focus on its supply chain planning capability, and require the agency to provide customized supply chain solutions according to the enterprise's business scenarios. For example, for the bulk export business of small manufacturing enterprises, the agency can assist enterprises to convert CIF trade terms into FOB trade terms, transfer logistics risks to overseas customers, and reduce the logistics costs and risks of enterprises. At the same time, you should require the agency to provide a cost actuarial model to calculate all costs in the import and export process in detail, including customs declaration fees, logistics fees, taxes, agency fees, etc., to avoid hidden fees. In addition, you should confirm that the agency has an inventory linkage strategy, which can reasonably arrange the transportation and storage of goods according to the enterprise's production plan and customer's delivery requirements, reduce inventory overstock costs and delivery delay risks, and optimize the supply chain efficiency of the enterprise.", "upvoteCount": 0, "url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/select-legal-import-export-agencies-with-decade-plus-experience.html#suggestedAnswer-8", "datePublished": "2026-07-17T10:01:15Z", "author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Grace Wang","url": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/team/grace-wang/"} } ] } }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ {"@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/"},{"@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Q&A", "item": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/"},{"@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "General Trade Q&A", "item": "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-general-trade/"} ,{"@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "How to screen import and export agency companies with formal qualifications and more than 10 years of practical experience?"} ] } ] ```