Setting up an Export Trading Company

I'm looking into similiar avenues but on the banking and financing side of things abroad as well.
Check out my blog

Investnicaragua.blogspot.com

first to see what kind of goods you are selling and who you are targeting to.
Open a business in Guangzhou would be a good idea but with enough knowledge of local employee cost, this is how a new company start in a new place.

My name is Summer from Guangzhou, China. I am local here.

Below is my suggestion:
1. You can rent an small office(with public reception and public tea room) and employ few person(maybe 1-2 person)to do business first; If the business is good, you can start to register your own company step by step;

2. More and more people can speak English in Guangzhou. Language is not a problem.

3. What is your product? There are a lot of wholesale market here and some factories nearby. It is very convenience for you to visit them and inspect the goods.

Hi,

I own and operate an export sales trading company in Xiamen, handling ceramic products, and there is a lot of information I could give you generally about setting up a trading company in China.

Part of it depends on what sort of products you plan to handle, but setting up a WFOC (wholly foreign owned company) is essential (and a legal requirement), unless you already have Chinese partners.  Without an WFOC it would be difficult to employ staff and you wouldn't be able to benefit from export subsidies, etc, which are a necessary part of trading company income.

Setting up a trading company in China is do-able, but nothing in China is ever easy or straightforward. With regards to the actauly company formation and registration, there are company formation agents who can handle that, but if you aren't fluent in Chinese, you will need staff you can reply on to deal with smaller factories and to liaise with the various government bureaus for day to day operation of the company.

It's actually a fairly complex thing to do, and the start of a fairly steep learning curve, but if you would like more information about the process, let me know and I'll try to answer your queries.

Thank you all for the replies.

I think i would go for WFOC as Mr Mark suggested.

I am planning to fly over there somewhere in March, and would definetely appreciate some more advice on how to proceed with the formation and legalities involved in starting a company.

So ill be disturbing you guys once again in less than a Month!

All Your replies have been much appreciated!

Thanks.....

Hello Guys,
Welcome to GZ and wish you run a successful company!
I'm a mechanical Engineer work here.So if you are going to run a company which has something to do with process,prototype...I can do some help.
BTW,I always pleased to show my foreign friend around here,for shopping,yummy

Kevin

Hi Dubai

Yes a WOFE is the only way to go. I work for a company who specializes in setting up companies for foreigners in Guangzhou.

Depending on what you want to import/export different licences are reqired. You will also need to rent a premisis before you can apply for registration and you will have to show the government that your company is financially stable. I can give you an estimate of how much money you will need to show the government.

Once all the paperwork is lodged the process will take between 60-70 days.

Please contact me for further information.

Good luck

Karibu sana naitwa Eric niko hapa pia kwa hivyo kama kuna shida ata ya lugha naweza kusaidia nimekaa china lugha naielewa tena nafanya business ya kutuma mizigo kenya kwa hivyo at customers naweza kutafutia sana sana kutoka kenya na congo   karibu sana:)

Hi Eric and welcome to Expat.com!

Could you please write in English in this Anglophone forum, so that each member may understand?

Thanks,
Harmonie.

Hi Harmonie, it sounded like gibberish to me as well. Well, did you make that comment because of your name? kidding

in fact be fast for that its a nice conducive place for business

[Moderated: No free advertisement on the forum please]

i would suggest establish an offshore company in Hongkong, that's costless, and most important thing is can save more on the tax.

The most right time is one month before canton fair. And to establish company in Hongkong can help you to save much money.

Hi，Dubai28,it is nice to meet you and other guys here. I am Ella from GZ.
Doing business in China is a good thing. As others mentioned above, a HK company is more flexible in Tax, money transfer,and business operation. Regarding the registration in China mainland,there are different types(Representative Office, Trading company, Consultancy Company, Partnership Company), which depends on your buiness scope and your requirement on residence.  The proceduce is also different amony different types.

If you want further information, you can feel free to contact me. i hope i can help you.

Best Regards.

Email: [email protected]
QQ:2414864455

Hi Dubai28,
    It really depends on what kind of biz model you are doing?

    For example: if you wanna develop your biz in China, you shall set up WFOE for invoice, import/export license even general taxpayer if you want to issue 17% VAT tax .


    However, if you are entrepreneurs startup, you can set up Hong Kong Company and find purchase your goods in China then let your supplier to send your goods directly to your clients. then it will say alot of taxes.

    Should you have any questions, you can consult me via [email protected]

Best Regards
Chester

I need your help to get complete information about registeration of a WFOC in Shenzhen , I want to do export business from china for Medical Equipments.

Regards,

Muhammad Khubaib Khan

I am interested in setting up an export business/company in China/Hong Kong (which ever is easier) my whole purpose of setting up this is to export goods from China to Africa (maanly to Somalia) I have the demand but know nothing of about setting up the business.

My questions are

What is the bare minimum requirement that I need to get a start in this business? and roughly how much will it cost me to set it up?

any help/advice is really appreciated.

Regards,

Abaaba

It is easier to set up hong long company then china company.

Hong Kong company takes 10 working days to process and minimum share is hkd 10k. No need to inject the balance.

China company which will be wholly owned foreign enterprise .it takes at least 2 months to finish the process.
The fee is high. The minimum registration capital is rmb 500k for import /export

For easier to start up business, hong kong company will be a better option.

For more detail ,u can pm me with email.I can share u info.

Thanks mate, I have pm'ed you.

Well, it depends on how money you have and how big is your business. If you have a big company, I think you may have two choice. One, open a wholly foreign-owned company in Guangzhou to buy goods there and then pay money with a Hong Kong company (which means you need to open a Hong Kong company also) to avoid the tax. Two, set up a China representative office in Guangzhou to buy goods and export it to your country.

I will say, the first option is best to save you a lot of money(the tax).

If you are interested in the plan I mentioned, you can contact me:
lora.locke[at]gz-touch.com
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Hope I help!

The below is a PM I recently sent to somebody regarding setting up trading companies, so have copies it here in case it is useful:

To be honest, setting up a WFOC in mainland China, and a HK company for tax minimisation purposes is not the easiest thing in the world.    The crux of the issue is what you intend to do with the company.   You say that you wish to set up a trading company to supply into Africa, but I am not clear if that is supply to third party importers, or supplying to your group companies (i.e. in house).   If the latter, A Representative Office is the easiest, and most normal route to take, and this is a totally different structure to a WFOC.  However, in this case, there may be tax advantages to operate an WFOC (as the tax implications for an RO are fairly onerous) in conjunction with a HK company for payments processing, although to fully derive the benefit of the HK company, there mustn't be any commonality of ownership between the two (so they must be totally unrelated companies).

Assuming you are planning to trade to third party customers, then you will need to set up an WFOC.  The basic requirements to do this is a minimum start up capital of RMB 500,000, although to be taken seriously and stand a better chance of getting a business licence, a larger start up capital commitment would be advisable, RMB 800,000, say, which can be invested into the embryonic WFOC in stages over a period of around 2 years.   The start up capital can be used as working capital for paying day by day business expenses once it has been authorised by the relevant government bureau.

Setting up an WFOC is a long and incredibly complex process, due to the mindbogglingly high levels of bureaucracy in mainland  China  (although setting up a company in HK is incredibly simple, by the way).   Once the business license is finally gained (takes around 2 - 3 months), there are then numerous other registrations to be completed before the company can start trading, such as Human Resources Bureau, Local Tax Bureau, National Tax Bureau, Currency Exchange Bureau, applying for export licences, opening company bank account, which in China again is horrendously complicated (although opening personal bank accounts is remarkably simple), and so forth.    Having said that, setting up a company anywhere in the world would require most of the above, it's just that in CHina it is far more complicated and time consuming that most other places.

To run a company in China, it is also essential to have "personal bank accounts" which are used for purely business purposes, and that is a whole area in itself, but without these, it is virtually impossible to run a company in China.

Having previously had a Representative Office in CHina, I was able to use my existing Chinese staff to help with setting up our WFOC, with a bit of help from a lawyer for the higher end stuff, which from memory we paid RMB 20,000 in lawyer fees, although part of that amount was for registration fees to government bureaus.  If you are setting up from a standing start, your best option is to go to a company formation agent in China (quite easy to find online), or use a lawyer.

Just remember, that nothing is CHina is ever easy or straightforward, and setting up an WFOC is most definitely not an exception to that rule.   Having said that, it is do-able, and does bring it's own rewards once the process is completed.

I hope the above sets the background a bit, but if you need any further help, please feel free to drop me a PM any time.

Hello my friend,

I am in Guangzhou now, and I focus on the trading business. I have many good suppliers database, if you arrive Guangzhou, please contact me, ok? I have a friend, she can arrange your accomodation and the office location.

By the way, what kind of products are you interested in? In Guangzhou, there are many small trading companies. We can talk more in Guangzhou, ok?

[Moderated: pls send personal details via a pm]

Best regards,
Rogers

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hello hope you are best in the life.
i am new here in foshan looking for some company can you help me out.

[Moderated: No free ad on the forum.]

hey, I'm living in guangzhou, also I've been working for two trading compines before, first boss was from Lebanon, second was from Egypt, but their business was really horrible, because they are TRADING COMPANY, they got some customers from their country and soon later their customers getting trustless to work with them(cuz they found out the prices much expensive than other people buying from China,it's better buy directly from Chinese manufacturer)...So I suggest you to start some business before you move to here, I mean, most of people visit china like 7days and buying some products for what their need then send it to their country by air or shipping, that's much easier and also a lot profit than a trading company...To do the business in China, the things you have to prepare is : 1.find customers from your country(find out what they need), 2. find the factory in china but not a trading company(the price will be expensive), 3.find a shipping company help you delievery the goods. 3.get a chinese visa. that's my own opnion, from my 4years working experiences for two foreign trading companies...hope it can give you some help..

Hi vckrm,

Welcom on board

Can you be more specific please.. and give us more details.. what kind of company are you looking for ?

Thank you

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Hi huluan311,

Thank you for your contribution

Please note that this thread is a bit old.. feel free to create a new topic with your questions or for sharing useful information on the Guangzhou Forum

Maximilien

hi Maximilien,

Thank you so much for telling me, I didn't notice that date...I'm new here:)

by the way, can you tell me how i contact the people at here? I tried to send them messages, but after i submit, always changed to my profile editor, what's going? thank you so much!

[Moderated: I suggest you browse through the Jobs in Guangzhou section and drop your resume in the work sector that you feel more comfortable doing please.. best of luck to you]

I would like some advise from you.

We have a trading company here in Dubai. We want one representative (indian) to be stationed in China. We want to source some products from china on a regular basis. The representative will work for us like negotiating on behalf of our company, shipping the goods etc.

It is not necessary to have a trading company of our own but we need a visa for our representative on a permanent basis, a room to stay with internet facilities and that it.

Can you advise if it's possible and if yes, what would be the expenses? Thanks

[Moderated: send details in private pls]

[Moderated: Avoid copy/paste on the forum.]

Hello sir

Myself Ragu. I am currently in Guangzhou. I am from  India. I have all the requirements of yours.
I have 6 months of experience in trading company. If you are intrested, please free to contact me

My email id- [email protected]
My mobile number- 008613025100646( guangzhou)

Regards
Ragu

how much cost for z visa,

Hi,
I would like to establish an import and export company in guangzhou.  Main business will be ready leather for shoes garments and handbags. I would be very thankful if someone can suggest me a reliable company who can help me out with that.

Thanks

Do you know any companies who can help me to open up an import export company in guangzhou,

Thanks a lot

Hi Guy,
Many agency can help you with that.
Maybe I can give you some advice. Do you use whatsapp or wechat? We can talk about the details.

Best regards,
Kevin
Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Why don't you give some advice on the directly on the forum, other members can benefit from it.? Thank you.