BEIJING TIME: 
Panama · Balboa and Colón
Panama’s advantage is position. A Pacific string can come off at Balboa. An Atlantic string, and a lot of free-zone business, lives at Colón. The canal is a route, not a city you deliver to. Which regime the car is for has to be decided before the invoice is cut.
Zona Libre de Colón, or a car that will take Panamanian plates. Write it on the proforma.
Balboa for the Pacific call. Colón for the Atlantic call. Do not “correct” it at the canal.
M1 or N1, the environmental sheet, the consistency certificate, plus invoice, packing list and bill of lading.
A free-zone unit and a national car can share a badge and still not share a catalog if the VIN differs.
The VIN is the key. A Zona Libre unit and a nationally plated car are identified first, then the lamp or the module is quoted.
Open CarPartsCertified dealers, cars from this desk. Beta. The session does not change plates and it does not file the declaration.
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Buyers use Panama because a ship can change oceans here, and because Colón already runs a free zone. That is a logistics advantage. It is not a China tariff concession, and this page does not invent one. What you should weigh is whether your customer wants a car inside the Zona Libre or a car that will be registered in Panama. Those are two invoices.
Balboa is the Pacific discharge we plan when the string is trans-Pacific. Colón is the Atlantic discharge, including cargo that has already come through the canal or a Caribbean relay. Tell us which one your agent already uses. A battery car is booked as Class 9 either way.
The conformity certificate still states the category under GB/T 15089-2016. M1 is the passenger car. N1 is the light goods vehicle. The environmental information sheet and the consistency certificate still tell the agent the emissions, the size, the mass and the powertrain. Your declaration, whichever terminal, has to match. We prepare the China file. We do not file it in Panama, and we do not print a duty percent. After the advance payment the factory issues exactly these three papers. The China compulsory product certificate and the consistency certificate are the same paper, not a fourth file. These China papers do not replace the local homologation and they are not a duty rate.
CarParts quotes the VIN on the declaration your agent filed, and it asks which regime that VIN cleared under. CarLive is a beta China-side session for certified dealers on units bought through this desk, when the local tool will not open the car. It does not move a car from the free zone onto plates.
B2B orientation. Zona Libre practice and the national heading change. Not Panamanian legal advice. Your agent files. We do not print a duty percent.
