Chapter 116 The Stalemate of "Compromise"

Abud smoked a rich handmade cigar and asked with a smile: "Mr. Li, have you ever smoked our Arabic hookah?"

"I seem to have seen this thing in a movie, but I really haven't had a chance to try it..."

When Li Xiaofan heard Abud talking about Arabic hookah, the scenes in the movie appeared in front of his eyes: in the streets and alleys of the Middle East, under the shade of a big apple tree, beside a mosaic window with lace curtains, or on a white bench in a cafe on the bustling street, a bearded old man wearing a turban, with an elegant hookah at his feet, squinting his eyes, puffing out smoke calmly.

On the low table, there are brass pots and cups that look like gourds. From time to time, a few cups of coffee are poured to the smokers around. The air is hot and the breath is lazy...

Abud smiled and said, "Mr. Li, if you have the opportunity to come to Dubai next time, I must invite you to try our most distinctive hookah! Our hookah has so many flavors, including fruit flavors such as apple, coconut, blueberry, lemon, and herbal flavors such as rose and cinnamon. You can also add some fruit juice or rose oil to the hookah according to your personal preferences, or even wine and other cocktails. The smoke tastes stronger and the smell is rich and fragrant..."

Li Xiaofan opened his eyes wide: "Hookah can actually be played like this?"

"Haha, when I was in college, I saw a Western media comment that the thoughts of our Arab intellectuals are in our tobacco pots!"

"Haha, it's really interesting!"

...

The two young couples chatted for a long time. When the sun was about to set, they remembered the main purpose of this trip: to negotiate the sunglasses business!

After carefully studying the box of more than 20 sunglasses samples displayed by Li Xiaofan, Abbud and Anise selected two pairs of men's and women's sunglasses.

Abbud finally asked: "Mr. Li, if we roughly choose these four sunglasses first, in order to avoid disputes over intellectual property rights, the design details such as the frame may be slightly optimized according to our requirements, and use the sunglasses packaging gift box designed by Miss Tang. Each pair will be 25,000 pairs, a total of 100,000 pairs. Can you quote a price CIF to Dubai Port?"

"Mr. Abbud, please wait a moment, because we have not done business exporting to Dubai, I will call to confirm the container shipping price from the mainland China port to your Dubai Port..."

"No problem, we are not that anxious..."

After leaving the meeting room, Li Xiaofan went to Tang Xinyi's office and used the landline on her desk to immediately call Wu Chunfen's mobile phone in the Foreign Trade Department of Dongfang Liming Glasses Company to introduce her to the latest Dubai customer order requirements and other situations.

"Mr. Li, the price of a 40-inch container from our mainland China port to Dubai Port is currently around US$4,000. If 100,000 pairs of sunglasses, plus the optimization of the frame design details, our mold cost, and 50,000 packaging gift boxes, I roughly calculated that the CIF Dubai Port price is around US$150,000..."

"Can't it be cheaper? This price seems to be much higher than the price of the sunglasses shipped to Singapore!"

"Mr. Li, you are a customer who has been personally greeted and cared for by our boss and the leaders of the District Foreign Trade Bureau. I am now quoting you the actual price! Because the frame designs you just introduced need to be changed and optimized, we have to re-open the mold, and the cost is quite high!"

"Okay, I understand. The first batch of How is the goods coming to Singapore now? "

"Our factory and suppliers are working overtime to produce. Don't worry, if it goes well, it should be delivered to Singapore Port within 20 days!"

"Okay, thank you for your trouble!"

After returning to the conference room, Li Xiaofan smiled and said to Abud: "Mr. Abud, because the frame design of the glasses you are interested in needs to be changed and optimized, the manufacturer needs to re-open the mold, which is quite costly. So our initial offer for the 100,000 pairs of sunglasses you want is now 450,000 US dollars..."

In fact, Li Xiaofan didn't know much about the sunglasses market in Dubai. He estimated that this kind of sunglasses retailed for 15-30 Singapore dollars per pair in Singapore, and the wholesale price was estimated to be 6-10 Singapore dollars, which is about 4 US dollars in US dollars. In addition, Tang Xinyi's packaging gift box design should be added a little bit, so it's 50,000 US dollars. 40+5=450,000 US dollars, just shout it out first, try it, try it!

After hearing this, Abd was very calm and said, "For 450,000 US dollars, the average price is 4.5 US dollars per pair, and a gift box of two pairs is 9 US dollars. It seems that the price is a bit too high! Mr. Li, can it be cheaper?"

"The price can be cheaper, but, Mr. Abd, I want to know your payment method?"

"Generally, we will open a letter of credit L/C for you, and pay a small deposit in advance. After the goods arrive at Dubai Port and are inspected and accepted, the balance will be paid!"

"Mr. Abd, we may need to discuss this payment term carefully. We prefer T/T wire transfer. Usually, the other party pays 30% to 50% of the bulk payment in advance, and the balance is paid after loading, that is, the balance is paid on the copy of the bill of lading..."

"Mr. Li, 30% advance payment is a common practice, and 50% is generally impossible!"

The more common payment settlement methods for trade business at that time were L/C letter of credit and T/T wire transfer.

L/C is a letter of credit. There are many types of letters of credit. It is a written guarantee issued by the issuing bank to the beneficiary (exporter) based on the requirements and application of the applicant (importer) for a certain amount of money, within a certain period of time, with bills of exchange and export documents, and at a designated place. It is a written certificate issued to the exporter to guarantee the responsibility of paying the payment.

In international trade activities, buyers and sellers may not trust each other. The buyer is worried that the seller will not ship the goods according to the contract requirements after the advance payment; the seller is also worried that the buyer will not pay after the goods are shipped or the shipping documents are submitted. Therefore, two banks are needed as guarantors for the buyer and seller to collect payment and deliver documents on their behalf, replacing commercial credit with bank credit. The tool used by the bank in this activity is the letter of credit.

T/T means telegraphic transfer. When using the T/T payment method with customers, the general practice is that the customer first pays the supplier 30% in advance, and the remaining 70% is generally safe. The method is: after the goods are loaded, the customer pays with the original bill of lading faxed by the supplier, and mails the entire set of original documents to the customer after the payment is received.

The two were deadlocked on the payment method.

Finally, Li Xiaofan seemed very helpless and "compromised":

"Mr. Abd, if you can prepay 40% of the payment, I can reduce the price to 400,000 US dollars, and agree to the proposed L/C transaction!"

Li Xiaofan's inner thoughts: The total price of the goods is 400,000 US dollars. If I can get a 40% advance payment, it is 160,000 US dollars, and the total price paid to Dongfang Liming Optical Company is only 150,000 US dollars. If the other party can agree to this advance payment, then there will be no risk for this business!

Hearing that the total payment can be reduced by 50,000 US dollars, Mr. Abd was obviously interested, and turned to talk to Anise in Arabic...