What is the difference between a free trade warehouse and a bonded warehouse?

Difference between free trade and bonded warehouse?

Free trade warehouses and bonded warehouses are both warehouses located in special areas for storing goods and providing corresponding trade services. Their differences mainly lie in the special areas they are located in and the way they provide services.

Free trade warehouses usually refer to warehouses established in various free trade zones, mainly providing storage, sorting, distribution, processing, and other services for international trade enterprises and cross-border e-commerce enterprises. Free trade warehouses enjoy policy and tax benefits, such as tariff reductions and exemptions from value-added tax.

Bonded warehouses are also warehouses for storing imported goods and providing related services under customs supervision, with specific business scope covering storage, processing, inspection, and maintenance. For imported goods stored in bonded warehouses, import duties and value-added tax are temporarily exempted until the goods enter the domestic market, which facilitates cross-border trade.

Free trade warehouses and bonded warehouses are new trade management models introduced under the background of actively promoting international trade and opening up to the outside world. Both types of warehouses can be used as customs clearance channels for foreign-invested enterprises’ exports, but they have some significant differences.

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Firstly, their tax policies are different. Free trade warehouse enterprises can enjoy preferential policies such as tariff reductions or customs clearance facilitation according to certain conditions; while bonded warehouse enterprises have an advantage because they do not need to pay import tariffs and value-added taxes before the goods formally enter the domestic market.

Secondly, their functions are different. Free trade warehouses mainly provide services such as storage, packaging, distribution, display, inspection, and quarantine, while also achieving free circulation of goods as part of the inland free trade zone. In comparison, bonded warehouses focus more on value creation and coordination through processing, assembly, mixing, and trade.

Finally, their target users are also different. Free trade warehouses mainly provide retail, wholesale, and logistics distribution services for various cross-border e-commerce and import commodity supply chain enterprises. Bonded warehouses, on the other hand, are aimed at processing trade, bonded display trade and other fields, and their target users are mainly foreign-invested enterprises and related industrial chain enterprises.

In summary, free trade warehouses and bonded warehouses have their own characteristics, and both are applicable to certain customs clearance modes. For enterprises, it is necessary to fully understand these advantages and disadvantages as well as relevant policies and regulations in order to choose the most suitable customs clearance mode for themselves, in order to ensure the smooth development of import and export trade.

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