Chinese Factory Without an Export License: What It Means and How You Still Buy Direct
Your factory says it can't export. Since 2023 that rarely means a licence. It means someone else must declare the goods. Here is how that works.
You found the right factory. Right price, right product, right sample.
Then the sales manager says: "We don't have an export license."
Most buyers hear "this factory can't sell to me." That is the wrong conclusion, and it sends people back to a trading company that adds a margin for paperwork they could have handled another way.
What it actually means is narrower. And it changed in 2022.
Does a Chinese factory need an export license to sell abroad?
Not in the way most guides still say.
Until December 2022, China's Foreign Trade Law required companies to register as foreign trade operators before importing or exporting. That is the "export license" most articles describe.
On 30 December 2022, that requirement was deleted from the law, with immediate effect. A further amendment adopted in December 2025, in force since 1 March 2026, did not bring it back.
So if a guide tells you every Chinese supplier needs a Ministry of Commerce export license before it can sell to you, it is describing a rule that no longer exists.
So why does the factory still say it can't export?
Because removing the registration did not remove the paperwork.
To declare goods at Chinese customs, a company still needs its own customs registration and access to China's electronic port system. Plenty of factories never set this up. They sell domestically, or they have always sold through traders, and nobody in the office handles export declarations.
There is also a short list of controlled goods that still need a specific licence or permit to leave China. That is a product question, not a factory question.
When a factory says "no export license" in 2026, it usually means one thing: it cannot be the company named on the export declaration.
That is solvable.
What an exporter of record does
An exporter of record is the company that declares the goods to Chinese customs in its own name. The factory makes the product. The exporter handles the declaration and the export documents.
The factory keeps making your goods. Your price is still the factory's price plus a defined service cost, not a trader's markup hidden inside the unit price.
In practice, the factory hands the exporter what is needed to declare the goods correctly: product description, quantities, weights, packing list and invoice values. The exporter files the declaration in its own name and issues the export documents.
Ask for the export service to be quoted as its own line. Then you can see exactly what you pay for the paperwork, separate from the price of the goods.
What changes on your documents
This is where buyers get nervous, and where fraud hides. When someone else exports for the factory, names change across the paperwork. Some of that is normal. Some of it is a warning sign.
Check five names on every order:
- The contract counterparty. Who you are legally buying from.
- The commercial invoice issuer.
- The account you pay into. The account holder name, not just the bank.
- The shipper on the bill of lading.
- The exporter on the customs declaration and on any certificate of origin.
In a clean exporter-of-record arrangement, these names follow a logic you can explain in one sentence. The exporting company appears on the export documents. Payment goes to a company account whose name matches the invoice.
What is never normal: paying a personal account, an account name that matches nobody on your documents, or a supplier who cannot tell you in advance which company will appear on the bill of lading.
Here is how one common, clean setup reads, with "Factory A" making the goods and "Exporter B" declaring them:
| Document | Name that appears |
|---|---|
| Commercial invoice | Exporter B |
| Account you pay | Exporter B's company account |
| Shipper on the bill of lading | Exporter B |
| Exporter on the customs declaration | Exporter B |
| Manufacturer | Factory A, where the document asks for it |
The names are consistent, and every one of them is a company. That consistency is what you are checking for.
Exporter of record vs buying from a trading company
Both solve the same problem. The difference is where the money goes and who you can see.
- Trading company: you contract with the trader. The trader buys from the factory and resells to you. Their margin sits inside the unit price, and you often do not know which factory made your goods.
- Exporter of record: you know the factory. The exporter's role is the declaration and documents, and the cost is visible.
Neither is wrong. A good trader earns their margin when they bring product knowledge, consolidation across factories, or credit terms. But if the only thing the trader adds is the export declaration, you are paying a product margin for a paperwork service.
The questions to ask before you pay
- Which company will appear as shipper on the bill of lading?
- Which company issues the commercial invoice, and does its name match the account I am paying?
- Is my product on any controlled list that needs a specific export permit?
- Who is responsible if the goods fail inspection: the factory, the exporter, or both?
The last question has no single answer, which is exactly why it must be written down before you pay. Usually the factory answers for the quality of the product, and the exporter for the accuracy of the export documents. Your contract should say who pays for re-inspection, rework or a remake if the goods fail, and which company you can claim against.
Key facts
- China deleted the foreign trade operator registration requirement from Article 9 of its Foreign Trade Law on 30 December 2022, effective the same day.
- The Foreign Trade Law amendment adopted on 27 December 2025, in force from 1 March 2026, did not reintroduce that registration.
- Exporting still requires customs registration and access to China's electronic port system to file declarations; many factories do not have this set up.
- A short list of controlled goods still requires product-specific export licences or permits.
- An exporter of record declares the goods in its own name, so the exporter's name appears on export documents while the factory keeps manufacturing.
Last checked: [DATE]
Found the right factory, but it can't export?
We are based in Shanghai and act as exporter of record for factories that do not declare exports themselves. You keep the factory. We handle the declaration and the documents.
Hamza Balakbiyech runs Kuai Solutions from Shanghai. Member of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (CECC).
