international business negotiation conversation

卡特：Mr. Wang, there’s still the question of the date of delivery. Can you ship as quickly as you can?

王明：Quickly? That’s ambiguous and how to define it? People hold different definitions. 卡特：My requirement is that the goods should be shipped on the first ten-day period of November to Liverpool so we will be in time for the winter high season. 王明：Oh, on the first ten-day period of November to Liverpool？However, it’s the last-day period of September. It’s hard to ship right now though we have prepared the goods.

卡特：I know, but recently shipping is into a peek and the shipping spaces are almost full.

王明：I was told yesterday that liner space to Europe has been fully booked up before next month, I’m afraid I can’t make anything out of nothing. 卡特：But as far as we know, is there a tramper?

王明：Yes, but seldom. Even though there’s an irregular line, I’m not sure whether it has enough space to ship all the goods.

卡特：Is it possible if transshipment permitted? 王明：Transshipment adds to the expenses, risks of damage and sometimes may delay arrival. As I know, this time, transshipment spaces to Europe is tiny. However, we can have a try. We have a good relationship with Hong Kong Transportation Company which signed a long-term agent agreement with many big shipment companies in the world and is famous in shipmen. 卡特：You know, direct shipment is of course preferred but if the situation is not allowed, we agree to transship to Hong Kong. To be honest, it makes no sense if the goods are not sold in time even though their quality is excellent and price competitive. 王明：Yes, I completely understand.

卡特：As I know, there is a liner from Hong Kong to Europe in mid-October. If you try your best to catch up with it, nothing is a problem.

王明：It’s difficult for us to accept the pointed second vessel, because many elements cause the date of shipment, in addition, whether the ship stops by Hamburg or not or whether the ship is full or not?

卡特：Oh, I don’t take them into consideration. Can you give any suggestions?

王明：To make it easier for us to get the goods ready for the shipment and to meet your urgent need, I will give a call to Hong Kong transportation company right now, so we hope that partial shipment will be allowed. We will ship half of your order at the beginning of this October and the rest will be shipped at the end of October what do you think? 卡特：Could you make it better? Say 80% for the first shipment? 王明：I’m terribly sorry. We’ve already tried our best. 卡特：Ok, that’ll be fine. I appreciate your cooperation.

Model 3

穆迪：Miss Sima, I’m glad that we’ve settled the quality, quantity, price and date of delivery. 司马：Yes.

穆迪：Now, what about the terms of payment?

司马：Well, we only accept payment by T/T with our new customers, because we can ship as soon as we receive the money. 穆迪：Oh, there are many payment terms in foreign trades, such as D/P、D/A、O/A、sight L/C and

so on. Would you like to accept other payment terms to replace T/T?

司马：Paying by T/T is our common payment term with our new customers because it can insure we have enough funds to turnover, arrange produce in time and deliver on time.

穆迪：But we have to prepaid so much funds and that will tie up our funds too! How about O/A? 司马：I’m so sorry! There is not precedent about O/A.

穆迪：D/A? We accepted D/A with a Japanese company and cooperated happily! 司马：Sorry, our company set there is no permission to use D/A in the big deal. And I can’t get out of the line. Please forgive me, thank you!

穆迪：Can I pay 30% by D/A and 70% by others? 司马：Sorry, I’m helpless.

穆迪：So, which one do you choose? 司马：To the big deal, we usually accept the payment by a confirmed letter credit at sight. What do you think?

穆迪：The problem is opening a L/C means we need to add to expenses, such as the bank’s handling charge、fax charge and so on, in addition we have to pay a deposit. It still ties up our funds and increases import cost.

司马：Miss Mudi, you know our quotation is competitive and you can get a large profit. Both of them can counterbalance the charges you pay. And you can take to the bank give you a favorable on the deposit.

穆迪：How about D/P?

司马：No, perhaps we shall consider it after we have more business together.

穆迪：As this is the first transaction we’ve done with you, I would suggest that you give us more favorable terms?

司马：Quiet right, but it was only under very rare circumstance that we did so. 穆迪：Well, I still hope you can reconsider it.

司马：To meet you half-way, what do you say to 50% deposit and the balance by L/C? 穆迪：That’ll be fine. Thank you very much for your cooperation.