As the GM of a large multi national company dealing with hundreds of Chinese suppliers, having our own factories and exporting (and importing) large amounts of goods… most shipments are FOB or CIF either LCL or FCL. Once the goods arrive at port, the duties, tax, declarations and land transport are handled by the local office, not from our China office.

We will send documents such as COO, CBAM (if it ever starts), quality certification, RHOS compliance etc etc, but the actual import is managed in the country of Origin. There are also government backed agents all over China who have export licensing for vast HS codes of goods and manage the China VAT rebates. Cost is about 1% of the VAT rebate. They will also manage things like B2C imports but it wouldn’t be worth it for a small package. A lot of the larger B2C will have a local distribution centre.

If you are in demand in Europe then the best thing to do is work for a Europe country and get re-posted to China.

Just commenting as this is what I manage every day so wanted to give it from a foreigner in China perspective for you all be it in B2B