Last year, I asked Andrew Hupert to explain what it takes to move manufacturing from China to Mexico. I chose Andrew for this because he has spent so much time in both China and Mexico, navigating their manufacturing systems from the inside. My law firm frequently consulted with Andrew when we first started doing China
December was a typically busy transactional month for our China team with the end of the calendar tax year looming. We were brought onto a China acquisition by one of our PE clients mid-month, and we closed before the end of the year. This cyclical frenetic pace of closing deals has caused me to reflect
As regular followers of this blog well know, we quite often stress the importance of registering trademarks in China, and the need to do so promptly. See for example China Trademarks: More Useful and More Necessary Than Ever. Today, I want to address some of the questions our China trademark attorneys fairly regularly get about
How to avoid problems when manufacturing overseas
Most of what we write about frauds involving China are about frauds perpetrated by Chinese companies against foreign companies. But as a reader recently emailed me, frauds perpetrated within foreign companies in China “are at least as common and every bit as damaging.” I agree, and today’s post highlights six of the most common internal
Despite (or in many cases because of) the increasing difficulties foreign companies face in doing business in China, there remains nearly as much interest in China joint ventures as ever. Our China lawyers have also seen a recent uptick in companies needing help with failed and failing joint ventures, which is to be expected as
Manufacturing Outside China: Apple Likes It and You Should Too
It is a helluva lot easier and cheaper to avoid losing money than to recover money that has already been lost. Whether you use Alibaba or not, there are certain “rules” you should follow when sourcing products from China and those rules include (1) conducting due diligence on your potential supplier, (2) protecting your IP, and (3) having a good contract with your supplier. And yes, all of this applies no matter what the color star your supplier has on Alibaba.
You should involve an international business lawyer and an international accountant or CPA as soon as you begin thinking about expanding abroad to a new market. Many lawyers and accountants would prefer to have a 20 minute conversation at your early stage to help you avoid many obvious and immediate issues rather than receive a frantic call six months later when you have run into trouble. You should get comfortable with asking these types of questions as early as possible.
Foreign companies see China as increasingly risky and they are looking to move out or reduce their footprint there.
