Country of origin now drives landed cost as much as the factory price does, and the rules in major destination markets keep moving. This page explains how we work the question, in plain terms and without quoting numbers that will be stale by the time you read them.
We don't publish rates. They'd be wrong within a quarter. What we commit to is the method, run before you commit to an order:
A product's country of origin is set by where it was substantially transformed: where it became a new and different article of commerce, with a new name, character, or use. Shipping Chinese components to a third country for simple assembly, repackaging, or relabeling does not automatically make the product originate there. Customs authorities look at what actually happened to the goods, and they look hard.
If a supplier or agent tells you origin can be changed with a stopover and a new label, walk away. The importer answers for a false origin claim, and the entry documents carry your company's name rather than the name of whoever suggested the shortcut.
China has trade agreements with a long list of countries, and under most of them a large share of goods enter at reduced or zero duty. The catch is procedural. Your customs authority will generally want a valid certificate of origin in hand at the moment you file the declaration, issued in China by the authorised body. Miss it and you pay the full rate, or post a guarantee while it gets sorted out.
Suppliers rarely raise this. It's paperwork on their side and the saving is on yours, so it gets skipped unless somebody asks.
We check whether your goods qualify under the agreement covering your market, and we make the certificate a condition in the purchase order rather than a favour we ask for after the fact.
Before you order, it's worth knowing what your destination market will ask for. Some products need registration, some need testing or a certification mark, some need particular labelling, and some need a local representative in the market. The time to find out is while you're still choosing a supplier, because a factory that can't produce the documentation you'll need is the wrong factory whatever the price says.
We'll tell you what applies and what a supplier has to be able to provide. Where you need formal registration in your own market, we'll say so and point you to someone who handles it.
Metier works origin legally. We will structure sourcing to obtain legitimate duty treatment, and we will not misdeclare, relabel, or route goods to disguise where they are from. If the honest answer is that your product's economics don't work from a given origin, we'll tell you, and we'll help you find one that does.
Whether it's a product idea, a supplier problem, or a full supply chain to rebuild, start with an email. We reply within one business day.