谈价

谈价 (tánjià) is "talk price"; 讲价 (jiǎngjià) and 砍价 (kǎnjià, "chop the price") are the market-stall versions. A unit price on its own tells you little. Before comparing two factories, establish five things about each number: the currency, whether tax is included, the trade term (where the goods are handed over), the quantity it assumes, and how long it is valid. Two quotations of "4.20" can differ by fifteen percent once those are fixed. The phrases in this section are the questions that pin them down, and the sections below explain the answers you will hear.

China's value-added tax, 增值税 (zēngzhíshuì), is 13% on most manufactured goods sold by a general taxpayer. A price can be quoted 含税 (hánshuì, tax included) or 不含税 (bù hánshuì, tax excluded); you will also hear 裸价 (luǒjià, "naked price"), which some suppliers use for the tax-free figure and others for the bare product without packaging, so ask which. The gap is the full 13%, so ask every time. As a general pattern, a price quoted in US dollars for export is usually tax-exclusive, because exported goods are zero-rated and the exporter of record can reclaim input VAT as 出口退税 (chūkǒu tuìshuì, export tax rebate). A price quoted in RMB often assumes a domestic buyer who wants a VAT invoice, and includes the tax. If you are paying in dollars and the price is 含税, ask what you are paying the tax for.

The most common terms are 30% deposit and 70% balance, written 百分之三十定金，百分之七十尾款 or simply "30% T/T". Before you write the word "deposit" in Chinese, know that two characters are pronounced dìngjīn and mean different things in law. 定金 (with 定, "to fix") is a legal earnest under Articles 586 and 587 of China's Civil Code: if the buyer walks away it is forfeited, and if the seller fails to perform it must pay back double. It is capped at 20% of the contract value; any amount above that does not count as 定金. 订金 (with 订, "to book") has no such rule and is treated as an advance payment, refundable against the price. 预付款 (yùfùkuǎn, prepayment) is the neutral term. Which word appears in your contract decides what happens to the money if the deal fails, so choose it deliberately and have a lawyer check it.

A factory expects to be asked for a better price, and its first quote usually leaves room for the request. Asking flatly and repeatedly for a lower number tends to produce a cheaper material rather than a smaller margin. The more productive move is the trade: offer something the factory values, such as a larger quantity, a faster deposit, a longer forecast, or fewer colours, and ask for a price in return. The softeners that keep this courteous, 能不能 (néng bù néng), 麻烦 (máfan), and 我们也理解 (wǒmen yě lǐjiě, "we understand too"), are covered on the meeting-room page; the lines below are the price-specific ones.

English groups digits in thousands; Chinese groups them in ten-thousands. 万 (wàn) is 10,000 and 亿 (yì) is 100,000,000, so 100,000 is 十万 (shí wàn, "ten ten-thousands") and a million is 一百万. Quantities and totals in a factory meeting are spoken this way, and a slip of one place is a tenfold error. The safe habit is to write every number down and ask the other side to read it back. Percentages and discounts carry their own trap, below: 打八折 does not mean 80% off.