China Changes Representative Office Car Import Regulations

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Jul. 23 – The Chinese government recently amended the regulations governing the importation of vehicle for representative offices, further limiting the types of vehicles that can be imported into the country by an RO.

According the new regulation which came into effect on July 1, cars that are imported by an RO or its representatives must be new and the RO is now required to apply to the local Customs administration for record-keeping. There are also certain limitations about the type and size of the vehicle, with large vehicles with more than nine seats being prohibited.

If an RO wants to import a car or cars, it will be up to Customs to decide the total number of the vehicles the RO could import. If a representative wants to import a personal car, they must be a foreign national who has resided in China and possessed a proper residence permit for more than one year. They are only allowed to import one car.

The importation of a vehicle by an RO will incur a 25 percent custom duty, 17 percent value-added tax and a consumption tax, the rate of which is dependent on the vehicle’s emissions rating.