Is Agent Export a Cheating Tool for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises?

Mr. Zhang stared at the accumulated goods in the warehouse, with customs codes and certificate of origin spread on the table like an impenetrable mystery. Three months ago, he registered a foreign trade company with great confidence, but now he is stuck by export qualifications and tax refund procedures. Does this scene seem familiar? 37% of small and medium-sized enterprises in China are forced to give up overseas orders due to export thresholds every year, and agent export is becoming the key key to break the deadlock.

Agent export is essentially a "capacity leasing" model. Compliance service providers represented by Zhongshitong open their own export qualifications, foreign exchange accounts, logistics customs clearance and other infrastructure to manufacturing enterprises. Ms. Li's ceramic workshop is just a beneficiary: "We only need to take orders and produce, and they handle customs declaration, tax refund, foreign exchange settlement, etc., and the capital turnover is 20 days faster than self-operated export."

• Breakthrough of Qualification Barriers: No need to handle import and export rights, borrow the AEO certification qualification of the agent
• Optimization of Cost Structure: The single-service fee is usually 1.5%-3% of the goods value, saving 60% of labor costs compared to building a foreign trade team on one's own
• Risk Firewall: Professional responses to letter of credit document review, exchange rate locking, quality disputes, etc.

A certain clothing factory once suffered a break in the capital chain during the peak season due to neglecting the "foreign exchange receipt time limit" clause in the agency agreement. When choosing a service provider, the following points should be focused on:

• Tax refund advance financing cycle (T+3 or T+15)
• Foreign exchange settlement method (offshore account or cross-border RMB)
• Quality dispute handling mechanism (especially for customized products)

Agent export should not be just a temporary measure. A certain home appliance enterprise served by Zhongshitong initially tested the Southeast Asian market through agent export, and three years later, it reversed and acquired a French brand with the accumulated customer data. This three-stage evolutionary path of "agent - self-operated - brand" is becoming a new paradigm for manufacturing enterprises to go global.

When you are about the 0.5% difference in the agency fee rate, have you ever calculated the opportunity cost of missing the sales window period? The real value is not about how much cost is saved, but about how much money that could not be obtained originally is earned. The question now is: Is your product ready to take advantage of others' ships to go to sea?