Our international trade professionals work closely with our Accounting & Tax, Asian Market-Entry Services, Asia Business Law, and Commercial Contracts Groups and Moxiu’s legal, finance and business consulting professionals throughout our offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Thailand to provide our clients with trade-related services tailored to their specific needs.
Import and Export Opportunities in China
China is an important jurisdiction for many businesses engaging in international trade. Manufacturing for export has played a large role in helping China emerge as the second largest world economy and China’s share of world trade has increased in all areas from low-tech goods such as clothing to a variety of high-tech products and services. At the same time, due to higher disposable income levels in China, the country is expected to become the world’s largest importer over the next few years. Through imports, China can effectively adjust its economic structure from one oriented primarily towards export to one driven by domestic consumption.
Manufacturing in Southeast Asia for Export
While consumers in China continue to buy more and more high quality imported goods, the rising cost of labor and manufacturing is encouraging business owners to move their manufacturing facilities to Southeast Asia where wages are lower. Despite the lower cost of labor in some regions, Southeast Asia offers a diverse demographic base and a growing population of affluent consumers and business professionals that are producing high-quality goods. There is a growing focus on education and training to improve productivity in Southeast Asia and significant reforms in the region’s legal and political systems are constantly taking place. All of the above has opened up new opportunities in Southeast Asia and some of our clients have already entered or expanded their businesses into Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam during the past several years.
Our Services
Although the opportunities to export to or import products from China and to export from Southeast Asia are abundant, the region’s legal, banking and financial systems are still developing, supply chains lack transparency and cultural and linguistic differences often make communication difficult.
Manufacturers in China and Southeast Asia present a competitive advantage by offering low priced products but it is not easy to find a reliable manufacturers or suppliers. Finding and negotiating with factories and other suppliers requires an understanding of these business markets and the laws and regulations that apply during trade transactions.
Our lawyers assist our clients with navigating the complex customs, tax, banking, commercial and other laws and regulations that apply during international trade transactions. In addition, Moxiu operates its own trading business www.moxiucompany.com and our business experts are readily available to help our clients with the management and coordination of their overseas trading business activities. Our business team can help locate manufacturers and suppliers in China and Southeast Asia and monitor their activities to ensure product reliability and assist with locating, negotiating and conducting due diligence on Chinese and Southeast Asian companies that are importing and selling foreign products.
Our trade teams provide the following services:
- Trade Services:
- Trade-related services, including the service of assisting our clients with locating buyers and suppliers in Canada, China and Southeast Asia
- Warehousing, logistics and shipping company coordination
- Trade fair services (assisting clients with identifying and participating in relevant trade fairs)
- Use of our licenses to import international products into China
- Factory Inspections
- Legal and financial due diligence
- Confirm assets and existing liabilities of a factory
- Investigate quality control measures and workplace safety
- Inspection of goods/product testing prior to shipment
- Implementation of quality control programs to meet the specifications of our clients
- Legal Services
- Provision of trademark registrations, patent applications and other intellectual property protection programs and mechanisms
- Applying for and advising on import and export permits
- Assistance with obtaining and completing import and export documentation
- Provision of purchase orders and purchase and sale contracts
- Legal research and advice regarding the legal and economic policies of ASEAN countries
- Consultations with customs officials
- Dispute resolution and customs seizures
- Information Technology
- Work-in-progress inventory tracking software for factories
- Enterprise resource planning software for trading and other companies
- Point of sale systems for retailers
- Assistance with online marketing in Asia
- Translation Services
- Provision of contracts and and translation of labels, brochures, and marketing materials Chinese, Thai, Japanese languages
- Packaging and Labelling
- Packaging, labeling, sorting, bar-coding in multiple languages
Agri-Food
Since China is Canada’s second largest export market for agri-foods, our trade professionals we are often approached by clients in China and Canada for our assistance with providing legal and business development services since this sector involves the understanding of and working with technical legal regulations and complex international business relationships. Agri-Food refers to the commercial production of food by farming and Canada’s agri-food sector often contributes more than $100 billion of Canada’s GDP. Agri-Food refers to the commercial production of food by farming and Canada’s agri-food sector often contributes more than $100 billion of Canada’s GDP. Our lawyers and business consultants, some of which are former Canadian government officials, have been assisting clients in this sector for 15 or more years and we have the in-depth knowledge and networks to provide value added services to Canadian and Chinese businesses operating in this sector. We are readily available to provide assistance to clients in this sector.