Learn about the Chinese Market

Learn about the fast-growing market in China,an option for companies who want to export goods and services.

Female: Are you looking for ways to expand your customer base? You might want to start thinking China. The United States foreign commercial service agency offers assistance for small businesses who want to do business in China. And recently, I spoke to Gao Yan, she’s a commercial specialist in Beijing China and she told me what they can do to help make that happen. Gao Yan, how important is the China market to the United States? Gao Yan: I know the two countries have been quite important part to each other and now China is the second largest treaty partner and also the largest export to US. The US export to China has been growing in the past eight years and in 2008 the export to China just reached I think $5.9 billion and also it creates about 100,000 jobs for the US. It’s already a good thing. For China itself is also quite economy in the world, the third to largest economy just after United States and Japan. Female: And Gao Yan, where are you base in China? Gao Yan: In Beijing, the commercial service of US embassy in Beijing. Female: I'm very impressed with the size of the market. What do you do or what does department does to help US companies access the China market? Gao Yan: Commercial side section is part of the Department Of Commerce in the US we all know that. They provide a wide range of services to help the US companies to enter the market in China. They have services like in quite popular Chinese, golf key service. We can have you set up appointments with the people and the companies you need to meet if you want to go to this market. And we also have customized market research service. If you don’t know this market available we can help you to market research to understand it and also about the regulations and accommodation and things like that. And also we hold all we know due diligence help like you feel launch two business with a Chinese company but you don’t know that and not quite sure about it we can help you. So, our international company profile service and to do some background check for you. And our servicing for US Company is quite good that you’ll know. They show trade shows in China and also the single company promotion event. So, with this service we can help you to promote your product in the China and also to increase your country’s export to this market as well. Female: You mentioned you're in Beijing are there other locations in China where US companies can go for assistance? Gao Yan: Yes of course they have totally of six offices all throughout China and Hong Kong and in Beijing is where the US embassy. Also we have offices in each of the five other US consulates general there in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenyang and also Hong Kong. So, there are six offices who can help you reach out to company to multi region of China. Female: One of the things that US companies value is their intellectual property, what can you do in China to help US companies protect their intellectual property? Gao Yan: For IPR it is quite important thing. If any company want to go to a foreign market they should be aware of this issue. Normally for us what we can give company is to give them some suggestions like we always tell them the best of protection is prevention. We will let them know this kind of IPR is quite territorial. If you gather your copyrights and patent registers in the US doesn’t mean that you can be protected in China. You must get all these things registered in China as well. Female: I see. So, you help them through that process. Gao Yan: Yeah and also we have a lot of patent and trademark office in Beijing with the embassy. If you need professional guidance you can also consult them. Female: Good. You mentioned the aspect of tradeshows for US companies, tell me a little bit how you can help get involve in a tradeshow in China. Gao Yan: For tradeshow in Beijing, we also have our trade show team and they can help you facilitate your participation of all the tradeshow in China. And for some selective quite important industry shows we organize US pavilion and we provide a lot of services to all the participants of this pavilion including onsite counseling and also career match making services for you the Chinese company there. Female: Now, you're in the US and you're visiting several cities and seeing some US companies, if other businesses watch this interview with you how would they go about getting started to do business in China? Where would they go to start to get information? Gao Yan: They will follow US Company, if you are base here in US the first thing you can go to our USEAC office. We have over a hundred offices all over US at different cities. USEAC is US Export Assistance Center; they can call on our first stop. There is no time difference and we all speak the same language and they can guide you or refer you to the commercial specialist like me in overseas countries. Female: Okay I have one last question for you and you mentioned it earlier but I’d like to know more about the gold key appointment program. How does that work for US Company? Gao Yan: Gold key service program actually is one of the most popular and frequently used services. And also in gold key we can help you set appointments with these USEAC companies, all the people that you're interested to meet with. You can meet the purpose result maybe you got interest of this market and maybe you want to find a kind of sales representation in this market for you and maybe you're also just new and want to learn about some regulation or regulatory requirement over this. And so we can set up meetings for either company’s representative who can be all sales agent or distributor and also look for other partners and we can also help you set meetings with officials who can brief you about the regulatory environment here, and also maybe some industry associations. It’s quite customize tailored to you're need. Female: Very good. You certainly do a lot of great work and I appreciate you taking time out to visit with us and share all these excellent information. Gao Yan: Thank you very much. We are all doing our best to help the US company to export to Chinese market. Female: Thank you. Gao Yan: Thank you.