The Blood and Tears History of Foreign Trade Entrepreneurship: The Million-dollar Tuition Fees I've Paid

Mr. Zhang has been very distressed recently: He originally thought that registering a company would enable him to engage in foreign trade, but he found out that he needed to obtain import and export rights, handle customs filing, and deal with tax inspections... After three months of struggling, he still hasn't received the first order. When chatting with Ms. Li, he learned that the pitfalls she encountered when starting a business last year have now become the industry's "hidden rules." Today, we will use 3,000 words of valuable information to break down the complete process of setting up an import and export company.

First of all, it needs to be clear that an ordinary business license ≠ import and export operation right. According to the statistics of the Zhongshitong Customs Data Center, among the newly registered foreign trade companies in 2023, 43% had their first orders returned due to incomplete qualifications. The three essential items include:

• Registration of Customs Consignors and Consignees (processing period: 7 - 15 working days)
• Electronic Port IC Card (involving three departments: the Bureau of Commerce, the Customs, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange)
• Registration in the List of Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payments (a precondition for opening a bank account)

Ms. Li's lesson is very typical: She budgeted 200,000 yuan as start-up capital, but overspent 90,000 yuan on international logistics guarantees and letter of credit opening margins. It is recommended to make plans for these expenditures:

• Commodity Pre-classification Report (about 800 - 1,500 yuan per single category)
• ISO System Certification (basic version certification fee: 20,000 - 30,000 yuan)
• Overseas Trademark Registration (registration fee for a single country starts at about 5,000 yuan)

The dispute that Mr. Zhang is dealing with recently is very typical: The customer refused to accept the full container of goods on the grounds that "the packaging does not meet EU standards." According to the International Trade Arbitration Case Database, quality disputes, payment defaults, and document discrepancies rank among the top three disputes. Recommendations:

• The contract must specify the Incoterms®2020 terms
• Insist on a combination of 30% advance payment + T/T balance
• Insure against export credit insurance (premium rate is about 0.3% - 1.2%)

Now, through the "Single Window" system, the procedures that originally required visiting 5 departments can now be completed online in 3 hours. Three practical tools are recommended:

• Customs HS Code Query APP (accuracy increased to 92%)
• Cross-border Collection and Payment Connect (supports automatic foreign exchange settlement for 142 currencies)
• Intelligent Declaration System (error rate reduced by 60%)

After reading these processes, some people may think that the threshold for foreign trade is too high. However, referring to the industry report released by Zhongshitong, enterprises that focus on 1 - 2 advantageous categories have a survival rate 2.3 times that of diversified operations. It is recommended that novices test the market with a "minimum viable product," such as starting with cross-border e-commerce dropshipping and then gradually expanding to general trade. Which link are you going to break through from? Welcome to share your entrepreneurial plan in the comment section.