Knowledge base
How a cross-border purchase actually works
The questions buyers ask before the first deal, taken one at a time: what you can establish yourself, what each answer proves, and where a desk check stops. Written for people buying in China and Europe and bringing goods into Russia and the CIS.
Knowledge base
How to vet a Chinese supplier before the first payment
What you can establish about a Chinese company before the money leaves, and the signs that you are talking to a trading company rather than the factory.
Incoterms: what sits behind EXW, FOB and CIF
What EXW, FOB and CIF change in a factory’s quote, where the risk passes to you, and why two prices on different terms are not the same deal.
Why customs holds a shipment
How the risk-based selection works, where a customs value adjustment comes from and what to have ready before the container sails.
Import VAT: who pays it and who gets it back
What the tax is charged on, who may reclaim it and why the deduction changes the arithmetic of the whole shipment.
Alibaba, 1688 and Taobao: where to look for a supplier
How Alibaba, 1688 and Taobao differ, why the domestic price is lower and what a company that needs documents has to arrange itself.
Digital product marking: who obtains the codes
Who obtains the marking codes for an imported consignment, where they are physically applied and why the category decides that rather than you.
How customs payments are calculated
How the sum at the border is built layer by layer, why the base is wider than the supplier’s invoice and where each rate is read from.
How to pay a Chinese supplier from Russia
Why a transfer stops somewhere on the route, what your bank is obliged to check before the money leaves, and what changes when an agent pays.
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