Opening a Trading Company in China — So Many Issues

Recently updated on April 15th, 2021 at 03:00 am

MELISSA ZARDI: Hello everybody, I need some info about opening a trading company in China.

The idea is to import wines from Italy and selling them in China.

Which kind of entity do I need? And how much will it cost? I know the best option will be the WFOE, but it requires the injection of a pretty high capital.

Any other ideas or ways to do it? The owners will be just foreigners and the location Beijing.

Waiting for suggestions! Thanks.

Sophie Xiao(Independent Sourcing Agent, China): Perhaps you think about setting up a representative office.

Praveen Kumar(Director at K.N.L. PRODUCTS LIMITED, China): I suggest you open a company in hongkong or macau to start with and use a local importer to handle import and delivery to your customer.

(View related article about Starting up an office in Hong Kong vs. Mainland China)

Li Jeremy(Director of Racepoint Group, China): I think a daughter company is a good way for you to do that, even a office will need a capital of RMB 300,000 injection.

Qun Wang(US and China Licensed Business Attorney): Yes, you got the idea, Meissa. It’s not a good idea to start a trading company with low registered capital even if you could, because you will loss a lot of money to pay higher taxes later on.

Find a local agent in Beijing to start the business, and then set up WOFE when business grows and when it makes sense to pay for the expensive and complicated application process.

Mehmet Oztoprak(Auto spare parts sourcing, China): Dear Melissa

We just finished setting up a WOFE. Capital should be around 1.000.000RMB (Almost 150.000 usd). It took 8 months to get all certificates and licenses.

I suggest you do not set up WOFE. You can buy a HK company (should be older than 2 years) open a rep office in china. It will help you to stay in china (working visa and resident permit) . There are many companies which can handle your import export issues for small commissions. They are Chinese, they know the rules, they have relations with customs, etc.

Good luck 🙂

Rafael Louzan(Consultant Trade China Barcelona Area, Spain): Hi!

Our company already import wine in China. Before to open the company, I suggest you to study well the administrative procedure for customs wine entrance … You will see there is a special reglementation for all the assets (wine taxes. labels, etc …).

To follow if (or to have Chinese “internal” contacts) will probably be the key of your success and will also condition your costs and sales prices.

Don’t hesitate to contact me for more details!

Joseph Huang(Interim GM at A.S. Watson Group): It really depends on what you want to do in China. There are hundreds companies would be able to handle your importation. But if you are thinking to have own “selling & distribution” function, then it’s a complete different story.

Ryan Son(Chairman at Royale Resouces Corporation Ltd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia): Yes, Lissa, I has been experience it. I had my Cafe comp. ltd registered in Beijing, and trading in BVI and Hongkong. If you want to have a marketing and distribution company, properly you need to reg. in Main land with Min capital of 500,000CNY. Take at lease 6 months…