The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are both potential cross-border enlightenment markets. China-Africa trade is mainly transported by sea or air from the Middle East to the local area. The logistics cost is high. Taxation, customs clearance, and foreign exchange settlement are affected by the uncertainty of local policies, and the time efficiency is low. Many African e-commerce platforms have adopted the solution of building their own logistics and distribution teams.
Air customs clearance in the six Gulf countries is relatively simple. Electronic customs clearance only takes one or two days. The consignee can log in to the customs official website for customs declaration. After filling in the waybill number and manifest, he can pick up the goods from the customs.
Due to religious, political and economic issues, there are many difficulties in logistics in the Middle East: First, the logistics infrastructure of various countries varies greatly. Affected by the turbulent situation, the development of postal services is relatively backward. Some remote areas still rely on desert camel mail routes. The order density is low, and delivery in remote areas is difficult. Second, the address is not standardized. The address database in the Middle East is poorly maintained. Consumers’ online shopping habits make them write a postal box number on the receiving address. The receiving address is vague and difficult to deliver. Many logistics companies will go to the post office to purchase address databases, and then match the user’s actual address by comparing it with the historical data of their own system before shipping. Third, users prefer cash on delivery, which makes logistics also assume the function of collecting payments. Buyers do not need to pay after placing an order when shopping online, but they are prone to regret and refuse to accept.
In terms of taxation, different countries have different regulations, and relatively wealthy countries have lower tax rates. The unified VAT tariff formulated by the Gulf Cooperation Council is currently only used in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. If the declared price of a single parcel is less than US$270, it is regarded as low-value goods and pays 5% VAT. Goods greater than or equal to US$270 pay VAT + tariffs. It is not a special category, and customs inspection is relatively relaxed, but it cannot be lower than the declared value. The declared value must be consistent with the cash on delivery payment amount. It usually takes 15 to 20 days or more for a parcel to be received from the buyer’s order.
The total volume of Turkey’s cross-border market is large, and more than 70% of imports come from China. The average daily parcel volume is tens of thousands, most of which enter the country by air transport of postal parcels. The delivery side is monopolized by the Turkish Post PTT. There are also some emerging e-commerce express delivery companies that provide personalized delivery, such as Aras, Yurtic and MNGkargo, which can achieve 1-3 days of delivery. Turkey imposes tariffs, excise taxes, special consumption taxes, value-added taxes, etc. on general trade imported products. If the declared value is greater than E75, the customs will identify it as a high value and transfer it to formal commercial customs clearance, and it is mandatory to provide HSC, VAT numbers, personal ID, etc., and the 3C products with the largest demand cannot be directly cleared duty-free, and must pay taxes; its tariff structure is divided into a variety of complex forms such as ad valorem tax rates, specific tax rates and formal tax rates.
Australia’s inspection of imported parcels is relatively loose, and no tariffs are generated for declared prices below 1,000 Australian dollars, but Australia has strict animal and plant inspection and quarantine procedures. Plants, food and drugs, cosmetics, chemicals, and wood products that have not been officially fumigated are prohibited from being imported. Any item must be clearly indicated on the waybill and invoice as to its newness, material and purpose, otherwise it is easy to be transferred to the animal and plant inspection procedure. Once the goods are unpacked for inspection, an inspection fee of more than 100 Australian dollars will be incurred, and the inspection cycle will take about a week. Sellers with annual B2C sales greater than or equal to 75,000 Australian dollars need to register their business code ARN through the Australian Taxation Office ATO, register it on the e-commerce platform, and include it in the customs import documents. They need to submit GST tax returns to the ATO on a quarterly basis.