Does my Chinese supplier have export rights?
Not every Chinese factory can export in its own name — some are not registered for foreign trade and ship through an export agent. That is lawful and common, but it means the entity on your export documents may differ from the factory making your goods, and both need to be identified.
A buyer usually discovers this at the worst moment: the shipping documents arrive and the shipper is a company nobody has mentioned. It is rarely sinister. Exporting from China requires the exporting entity to be registered for foreign trade and with customs, and plenty of capable factories — particularly smaller ones serving the domestic market — simply are not.
What an export agent arrangement looks like
The factory makes the goods. A separate company, registered for foreign trade, acts as the exporter of record: it appears on the customs declaration, handles the export formalities, and frequently receives the foreign-currency payment and handles the export VAT refund. Both companies are real, both are doing something legitimate, and you may only ever have spoken to one of them.
Why it matters to you
| Consequence | What to do about it |
|---|---|
| The payee may not be the factory | Establish in advance which entity you pay and why, and get it into the contract rather than discovering it in a payment instruction |
| Your contractual counterparty may be ambiguous | Decide deliberately who you contract with — factory, agent, or both — and name the registered entity and its credit code |
| Documents name a company you have not verified | Verify both entities on the registry: the maker and the exporter |
| Recourse can become unclear | A defect claim against a factory that is not your contracting party, or an exporter that never touched the goods, is a weaker position than either sounds |
The reason to establish this before the first order is not that the arrangement is a problem. It is that discovering it at the moment you are asked to pay an unfamiliar company is indistinguishable, from where you are sitting, from a payment-diversion fraud.
How to find out
- Ask directly, early: "Do you export in your own name, or through an agent?" It is an ordinary question and a straight answer is normal.
- Read the registered business scope on the registry record. Foreign trade activity is reflected in what an entity is registered to do.
- Compare the names across the proforma invoice, the contract, the payment instruction and — once you have them — the bill of lading and customs declaration.
- Where an agent is used, get its registered name and credit code too, and check it the same way you checked the factory.
This is also a trading-company signal
The same document set that reveals an export agent often reveals something else: that the company you believed to be a factory is itself buying from one. Neither is disqualifying — a good trading company adds real value — but it changes who controls quality, who can fix a problem, and how much margin sits between you and the line. The registry record and the export documents together answer this more reliably than any conversation.
Want this done rather than explained?
Verify a Chinese supplier before you pay — from US$220, 3–7 working days.
Sources
- General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China
- Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) — foreign trade operator registration
- National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (GSXT)
All sources checked 7 September 2026. This page is general information, not legal, tax or customs advice. Requirements vary by product, market and circumstance — confirm your own position before acting.