Quick Question Friday: China Law Answers, Part 82

Because of this blog, our China lawyers get a fairly steady stream of China law questions from readers, mostly via emails but occasionally via blog comments or phone calls as well. If we were to conduct research on all the questions we get asked and then comprehensively answer them, we would become overwhelmed. So we usually provide a quick general answer and, when it is easy to do so, a link or two to a blog post that provides some additional guidance. We figure we might as well post some of these on here as well, which we generally do on Fridays, like today.

Not surprisingly, the most common questions we are getting these days relate to the tariffs being put on products made in China and imported into the United States. The questions and our typical answers are usually some variant of the following:

1. How much will my tariffs be? Tell us about your products and we will tell you what the tariffs will be.

2. How long will my tariffs last Nobody knows, but we believe these tariffs will be in place a long, long, time. See When Will the US-China Trade War End? It’s the New Normal.

3. Is there anything I can do to get my products excluded from these tariffs? Yes, so long as the deadline for your particular products has not already passed. Our international trade lawyers handle these. See How to Succeed with your China Tariff Exclusion Request (or not).

4. If I cannot get my products excluded from these tariffs, what should I do? You should consider moving your production outside China, to a country without tariffs. See Moving Your Manufacturing Out of China: The Initial Decisions. You should try to negotiate lower prices from your existing Chinese manufacturers. Just yesterday, Bloomberg News wrote China Factory Prices Drop as Consumer Gains Hand. In Who Pays the Tariffs on China Imports? What YOU Can do NOW to Reduce Your China Prices we explain why your China factory’s costs have declined and in How to Lower your Product Costs we explain how you can negotiate lower prices from your China suppliers.

Any more questions?

What are you seeing out there?

We will be discussing the practical aspects of Chinese law and how it impacts business there. We will be telling you what works and what does not and what you as a businessperson can do to use the law to your advantage. Our aim is to assist businesses already in China or planning to go into China, not to break new ground in legal theory or policy.