How to import from China: the six decisions that actually cost money.

Establish who you are actually buying from — irreversible

The name on a storefront, a catalogue or an email signature is a trading name. The party you contract with is a registered Chinese legal entity with a registered Chinese name and an 18-character Unified Social Credit Code. Those are different objects, and only the second one exists in a register.

This matters because the most common failure in a first import is not a scam in the dramatic sense. It is a mismatch: you negotiate with a sales agent, sign with one company, and wire to a third. When something goes wrong there is no single counterparty to hold, because you never had one.

Ask for a photograph of the business licence (营业执照) and read the registered name and code off it, then check them against the public record yourself. Both steps matter: the licence tells you what to search for, the register tells you whether it is current. How to run that check, and who holds the register.

A licence photo the supplier sent you is a document the supplier produced. It is a starting point, never the confirmation.

Agree the terms that define “delivered” and “acceptable”

Two things need to be written down before production starts, and both are routinely left vague on a first order.

Where the goods become yours. This is what an Incoterm encodes — who pays freight, who carries the risk, and at which point it transfers. The choice changes your landed cost and your insurance exposure. It does not change your ownership of the quality problem.

What counts as conforming. A specification that says “stainless steel” has not specified anything. Grade, tolerance, finish, packaging, labelling and the approved sample all belong in writing before tooling starts. After production the only question anyone can argue about is whether the goods match what was agreed. What a specification has to pin down.

Know which document proves what

A first import generates a stack of paper. Only a few pieces of it carry weight, and each carries a different kind:

proforma invoice (a draft invoice used to confirm the deal before you pay): the supplier’s offer. It is the document that names the seller entity and the receiving bank, which is why it is worth reading closely rather than signing. What to check on a proforma invoice.

Purchase order: your instruction, and the place your specification and terms live. What belongs on the purchase order.

Commercial invoice and packing list: what customs reads. Values and descriptions here have consequences beyond the shipment. How these two must line up.

Bill of lading: the document that controls the cargo. Who is named as consignee, and whether it is original or telex-released, decides who can collect the goods. What a bill of lading does and does not prove.

Check the payment beneficiary against the contracting party — irreversible

This is the single highest-value check in a first import, and it takes minutes. The bank account you are told to pay should belong to the company you contracted with, in the same registered name. When the beneficiary is a different company, an individual, or an account in a third jurisdiction, that is not automatically fraud. But it is always something to resolve before the wire, not after.

International wires are not reversible on request. Once the funds land, your leverage is whatever the relationship and the contract give you, and on a first order that is usually very little. How to check the beneficiary against the registered entity.

If a supplier explains a mismatch with urgency, a frozen account, a year-end audit, a “temporary” alternative — treat the urgency itself as the thing to slow down for.

Decide who looks at the goods before they ship

Nothing in the paperwork tells you what is in the cartons. Someone has to look, and it has to be someone whose interest is not in the shipment leaving on time. On a first order with a new supplier that is normally a third-party inspection against the approved sample and the written specification. What pre-shipment inspection covers, and what it does not.

Skipping this is a defensible choice on a small trial order where the loss is affordable. It is rarely defensible on the order that follows it.

What this page deliberately does not tell you

Three parts of importing are genuinely country-specific and change frequently. Getting them from a general guide is how people end up with the wrong number in a costing sheet:

Duty and tax rates depend on your country, the tariff classification of your product, and trade measures in force on the day of entry. They are a question for your customs broker or your national customs authority, not for a guide written elsewhere. (For one recent change that affects EU-bound parcels under €150, see the EU €3 customs duty explainer.)

Transit times and freight rates move with season, lane and capacity. A forwarder quoting your actual lane this week is the only reliable source.

Product compliance, including certification, labelling and restricted-material rules, is set by the destination market. It is often the difference between goods clearing and goods being held. Establish the requirement before you order, not after the container arrives.

We are a China-side desk. What we can evidence is the Chinese record: who the entity is, what it is registered to do, and what the public record shows. We do not ship, we do not clear customs. We do not quote freight, and a page that pretended otherwise would be the least useful thing on this site.

Where to start if you have a supplier in front of you

If you already have a name, a proforma invoice or a business licence photo, do the first two irreversible steps above now. Confirm the entity, then confirm the beneficiary. Both are checks against the public record rather than opinions about the supplier.

Run the free registry check

Every line we deliver names its source and the date it was queried, and states what it cannot show. A registry record confirms identity and standing. It is not a judgement on whether a supplier is a good one to work with.