6. Freight forwarder and customs broker

As you progress in the binoculars and telescopes import business with us, many factors become obvious and easy to handle. For example, you'll need to find a person to handle shipments, called a freight forwarder or customs broker.

6.1 What does a freight forwarder do?
6.2 What does a customs broker do?

6.1. What does a freight forwarder do?

A freight forwarder is a person who takes care of the important steps of shipping the merchandise. This person quotes shipping rates, provides routing information, and books cargo space. Freight forwarders prepare documentation, contract shipping insurance, route cargo with the lowest customs charges, and arrange storage. They are valuable to you as an import/export agent, and they are important in handling the steps from factory to final destination. They can be found by looking in the yellow pages or by personal referrals. Find someone who can do a good job for you.

6.2. What does a customs broker do?

Customs brokers provide professional assistance and advice on customs, quarantine and import matters.

Customs brokers may perform the following tasks:

， provide information to importers on customs tariffs including rates of duty and the methods of goods clearance
， receive, prepare and process import documents
， liaise with the local Customs Service and other government authorities in the correct clearance of goods through customs
， advise on tariff classifications, tariff concessions, appraisals and overseas trade inquiries

Customs brokers may specialize as freight forwarders.

In our case, mostly, we'll quote you CIF or C&F prices, which means that our freight forwarder will make reservations with shipping or airline companies for freight to be exported from our factory to your destination air/sea ports, and our state-owned export agent arranges for the clearance of cargo. On your part, the jobs to do is to clear the import customs, pick up, and deliver the shipment to your door. You can do it by yourself, or you can have a customs broker do it for you, especially if your business is not located in a city that has international air/sea ports- a customs broker will save your time and money. Please note that a customs broker usually should be licensed by the local Customs Service.

And, in case you decide to make all the shipping arrangements by yourself, we'll quote a FOB price. You need to find either a freight forwarder or customs broker to transport your shipments from our factory to your destination air/sea ports. We don't recommend you to do this-you or your freight forwarder may not know shipping ins and outs here in Kunming-unless you've a capable freight forwarder or customs broker who has the experience in working with Chinese suppliers.