How to become a clearing and forwarding agent

Official title: Clearing and forwarding agents

Also called: Clearing agent, Forwarding agent, Shipping agent

Clearing and forwarding agents carry out customs clearance procedures and ensure that insurance, export/import licences and other formalities are in order.

Main tasks

• Carrying out customs clearance procedures for exports or imports
• Ensuring that insurance is in order
• Ensuring that export/import licences and other formalities are in order
• Signing and issuing bills of lading
• Checking import/export documentation to determine cargo contents, and classifying goods into different fee or tariff groups, using a tariff coding system

Ways in

• Qualifications Framework: Vocational Qualifications Pathway: Import & Export. The Qualifications Framework publishes a Vocational Qualifications Pathway for the Import & Export industry (進出口業), showing QF-recognised qualifications by level: https://www.hkqf.gov.hk/ie/en/vqp. Link between the industry and this job by Peernovo.

Pay · Outlook · AI and this job

• Median pay: HK$27,000 a month
• About 1,542,900 people in 2025, and about 1,639,100 projected by 2028. (+6.2%)
• Generative AI could change many tasks in this job, which usually reshapes the work more than it replaces it, by the ILO's global estimate.

Related jobs

• Real estate agents and property managers
• Employment agents and contractors
• Business services agents not elsewhere classified
• Conference and event planners

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Questions people ask

How do I become a clearing and forwarding agent?

Ways in include: Vocational Qualifications Pathway: Import & Export.

Do you need a degree to become a clearing and forwarding agent?

Not always. 50% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Ways in include: Vocational Qualifications Pathway: Import & Export.

Will AI change the work of a clearing and forwarding agent?

Generative AI could change many tasks in this job, which usually reshapes the work more than it replaces it, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

• Census and Statistics Department (2021 Population Census): 2021 Population Census, Interactive Data Dissemination Service: working population by occupation (38 groups) and sex, age, education, income; median income and field of education (9 groups) (2021 Population Census), retrieved 4 October 2026
• Census and Statistics Department (General Household Survey): Median monthly employment earnings by occupation (9 groups), excluding foreign domestic helpers (Table 210-06317A); employed persons by occupation, age and sex (210-06307A) and by industry (210-06308A) (2025 annual (series to 2026-07)), retrieved 4 October 2026
• Labour and Welfare Bureau; tables published by C&SD: Mid-term Update of Manpower Projection to 2028: supplementary statistical tables (5 occupation groups, 17 selected industries) (2025 to 2028 (published 2026-09)), retrieved 4 October 2026
• International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026

Updated 4 October 2026