Filing an export declaration in China

What this document is and why it is needed

No cargo leaves China without an export declaration. It is a Chinese customs document confirming that the goods are being exported lawfully: what exactly is leaving, by whom, in what quantity and at what value.

It is then needed again — this time in Ukraine. Ukrainian customs treat the export declaration as one of the confirmations of customs value. Without it there is a higher risk that the value of your cargo will be determined not by your invoice but by reference prices, and duty and VAT will come out higher.

So it is not a box-ticking paper at the start of the route, but a document that works in your favour at both ends.

Two situations in which the cargo stops

The supplier has no export rights. In China, not every company may export — only one with the relevant registration. Small factories, workshops and sellers on 1688 or Taobao work for the domestic market and often do not have it. For you this means: the goods are fine, the price is fine, but they cannot be shipped out.

You have no documents for the cargo. The goods were bought through an intermediary, assembled from several suppliers, paid for to someone other than the factory's legal entity, or there are documents but they do not match the actual cargo. There is no set of papers that can be shown to customs.

In both cases the usual market answer is a refusal or an offer to move the goods unofficially. Neither option suits you if you are running official imports.

How we close this

The export is filed through our own Chinese company with export rights — we do not hand it over to outside agents. The declaration is submitted by the same company that physically holds your cargo in its warehouse, so responsibility is not diluted between intermediaries.

Our own warehouses in Guangzhou, Beijing, Yiwu and Hong Kong are located where the cargo is formed. Goods from your supplier arrive at the warehouse, we receive them, check the quantity and condition and, if needed, repack and label them. The export filing then goes from our side.

What this gives you in practice:

• you can buy from a factory that does not work for export and not lose a good supplier
• you can build one shipment from several different suppliers
• the cargo leaves China with a proper declaration through a company with export rights, rather than by a workaround
• in Ukraine you have a document that confirms the customs value

What we need from you and how long it takes

For the filing we need:

• a description of the goods: what they are, what they are made of, what they are for, the brand if there is one
• quantity, weight, volume, number of packages
• the supplier's contact details and the address the goods are collected from
• an invoice or at least proof of payment — if there is one
• photos of the goods and the labelling

If some of this is missing, show us what you have. We will look at the specific case and tell you plainly whether we take it on. There are few categories we do not take at all: temperature-controlled cargo, and goods prohibited for export from China or import into Ukraine.

The declaration is filed in parallel with consolidation of the cargo at our warehouse and adds no time to the route. After that the standard transit times apply: sea — 70 days, rail — 35–45, air — from 10.