---
title: "Setting up foreign trade"
description: "Say once, for good, whether your business imports goods to resell them or for its own needs, and every import dossier takes it."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.beelocity.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Setting up foreign trade

A business that imports does it for one of two reasons. Either it buys goods abroad to resell them
as they are, which Algerian rules call *revente en l'état*, or it imports what it uses itself: raw
materials, inputs, equipment. The bank, customs and the tax office treat the two differently at
almost every step, and a business does one or the other. You say which once, and every import
dossier you open afterwards takes it.

Most businesses say it when they create their organization, by answering **Do you import goods?**
([Setting up your business](../getting-started/creating-an-organization.html)). This page is where
a business that never said it says it: one that switched Foreign Trade on later, or that was
created before the question was asked.

<a id="say-what-your-business-imports-for"></a>
## Say what your business imports for

1. Open **Foreign Trade** in the sidebar. At the bottom of its panel, open **Setup**. It opens on
   **Dossier rules**.
2. Press **Edit**.
3. Under **Purpose of import**, choose **Resale** if you resell the goods as they are, or **Own
   needs** if you import for your own production or use.
4. Press **Save**. Beelocity names your answer and reminds you that it cannot be changed. Press
   **Save** again to keep it.

Until this is saved, the Foreign Trade page opens on a **Purpose of import not set** block, and
**New** on the import dossiers or the import programmes brings you here instead of opening a form.
Press **Open Setup** in that block to come here.

<a id="the-answer-is-final"></a>
## The answer is final

Once saved, **Dossier rules** shows your answer with no **Edit**, and says that it is final. The law
runs the two kinds of import on separate registers and separate platforms, so a business that
changes kind is, in practice, another business. If yours also imports for the other purpose, it does
so as another organization in Beelocity, with its own dossiers and programmes.

Your dossiers and programmes do not show the purpose: it is the same on every one of them. Each
still keeps it, and the rules that depend on it, such as the domiciliation tax on a resale import,
read it there.

If your business already had dossiers before this page existed, Beelocity filled the setting in for
you when all of them said the same thing. If some said resale and others said own needs, the
setting is left empty for you to choose once, and the old dossiers keep what they said.

Source: https://docs.beelocity.com/en/trade/setup/index.mdx