The Basics of Importing From China

Back then, China was known as the land of theopened its doors to the international market, it
emperors and ancient civilizations. But not anymore.imbibed international trade practices and laws, making
China has become a giant economy, overtaking Japanit easier and safer to buy their products.
and coming second to the United States. China is3. With its high population, there are a lot of workers
growing by leaps and bounds in the import exportavailable in China. Because cost of living is lower in
business. It has become the largest manufacturer ofChina, workers do not command the same level of
many products exported to other countries such aswages as in the US or Europe. The cheap labor in
mobile phones. In the same note, China with aChina significantly reduces product manufacturing
population of over 1.3 billion has grown to becomecost.
the biggest automotive market. If China continuesAlong with these advantages and opportunities come
the present trend in its import and export business, itrisks. Because of the language differences, it would
is expected to remain the fastest growing economybe difficult to do business with companies that do
and grow 10% every year, possibly overtaking thenot have English-speaking staff. However, in recent
United States to be the world's economic giant.years, the big manufacturers have included multilingual
What made China grow so big in the last 30 years?sales staff that can assist foreign businessmen. There
It would be a combination of factors such as:are also Chinese business etiquettes that are totally
1. China products can compete with products comingdifferent which would affect the success and failure
from other countries. There are myths that productsof business transactions. Despite China's trade
imported from China have a problem with quality butliberalization, traditions and culture still play big part in
manufacturers are quick to dispel this, stating thatthe business and this need to be taken into
majority of the buyers dictate the standards of theconsideration when dealing with them.
products that they are manufacturing. Therefore, theIt is highly essential for an importer to be flexible and
blame cannot be passed on to them. A lot of bigstudy different sources for your products in case
names in the world have their products made in Chinaone or two suppliers fail. When starting off, it might
using quality materials and under strict conditions ofalso be a good idea to partner with private
manufacturing standards and quality control.companies who already have information on trading
2. The Chinese government has cut the red tape, sopractices as well as distribution channels in China. It is
to speak. Many of the obstacles that used to behighly essential to understand the Chinese
imposed by the government have discouragedbusinessmen and their culture. There are online
foreign businesses from pursuing transactions withinformation, import export coaches as well as import
China suppliers. China joined the World Tradeexport training courses and e-books that will keep
Organization in 2001 and made itself more attractivebusinessmen updated on China's policies and practices.
to international businessmen with this tradeBetter yet, get the services of import export agents
liberalization. The WTO handheld China in its ventureand experts who know the intricacies of the China
out into the international market and made it possibleimport and export business.
for China to lure in international buyers. When China