Product Description
Exporting Wine to China
The process of exporting wine to China is similar compared to exports of many other agricultural products. We try to bring you some basic information about the process of exporting wine to China.
Below you can find summary of exporting procedure and you can see the steps of exporting wine to China:
1. Finding Chinese Wine Importers. Good partner will spare you a lot of time. They know how to import, which document you need, you will avoid many problems if you are working with experienced wine importers in China. The Chinese wine importers needs to make a lot of registrations, for example registering at the local custom and register themselves at AQSIQ. Wines-Importers.com can provide thousands of Chinese wine importers' list, with detailed information including email address, contact person, company profile, establishment year, products category, etc.
2. Signing a contract with your Chinese Wine Importers. According to the new rules on wines and spirits, you need to register your winery or distiller in the custom system. After finishing the process and getting approved by the authority, you’ll receive a registration number and your company information will be stored in custom’s database. You have to put this registration number on the wine or spirits, beer label or on the cartons.
3. Translating and registering wine label. Before the shipment of your wines, spirits or beer, you need to register your label and send many documents to CIQ for review. After the approval, you’ll receive a filing number of your wines that are eligible for being imported into China. Normally the Chinese Wine Importers will handle this for the wine exporter.
4. Shipping your wines. Sea freight is a common way to ship the wines to China. During Summer it’s recommended to use fridge container. For some expensive wines, air freight is also an option.
5. CIQ Inspection and custom clearance. When wines arrive in China, your Chinese wine importer or agent should normally declare the wines at the nearest CIQ office. CIQ people is responsible for quality control of goods that enter or leave China and to manage inspections of goods, to assure that these follow local standards. If your wines are analyzed by laboratory and get approved, you’ll receive a Certificate of Approval from CIQ and they will let your goods continue to customs clearance. CIQ Certificate is an important document which is often requested to provide by distributors and retailers in the Chinese wine market.
6. Import Taxes & Tariffs for Wines. Chinese wine importers have to pay three different taxes when exporting wine, namely:
| 1 |
VAT (value-added tax) |
13% |
|
| 2 |
Import custom duty |
14% |
for vintages with 20% or lower alcohol content by volume |
| 20% |
for bulk wine or those with an individual packing of more than two liters |
| 3 |
Consumption tax |
10% |
|
Custom duty is CIF multiplied by 14%. For excise tax and VAT, the following computations are applied.
Excise tax = [ (CIF + import tariff) / (1–10%) ] x 10%
Value-Added Tax = (CIF + import tariff + excise tax) x 13%
In total, the amount of taxes to be paid for imported wine is around 50%. This does not include documentary and handling fees charged by the shipping company and freight forwarder, among others.
There are exceptions, however. Countries who are in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with China can import wine tariff-free in a certain period of years. New Zealand, Chile and Georgia only pay less or 0 taxes rate for their imports. Meanwhile, China and’s FTA came into force only January of this year. The United States and Australia also has a different rate to follow.
Regulations on exporting wine to China are quite complex and also changing rapidly. It is important for wine producers, spirits or beer brand owners to always be updated. This way, you can avoid problems that may lead to confiscated imports, shipping delays, stuck in the port or other penalties.
If you have any questions regarding Exporting Wine to China, please contact us immediately and our wine experts will help you as much as we can.
