Commission refers to the service fee paid by the seller or buyer to the middleman for buying, selling or introducing transactions.

China's specialized foreign trade companies, when acting as agents for domestic enterprises' import and export business, usually agree on the commission rate through the signing of an agreement between the two parties, but when making external quotations, the commission rate is not clearly stated in the price, which is the so-called' hidden commission'. If the commission is clearly stated in the price terms, it is called "maid". In China's foreign trade, it mainly appears in the quotations of China's export enterprises to foreign middlemen.

The contract price including commission is called commission price, which is usually multiplied by the commission rate to get the commission amount. Its calculation formula is:

Commission = including commission price x commission rate

Commission = Commission price-net price.

After completion, the relationship between the commission price and the net price is obtained:

Where holding price = net price/1- holding rate

Commission is usually expressed by the English abbreviation C. For example, 1000 USD per metric ton CFR Seattle includes 2% commission, which can be written as: 1000 USD per metric ton CFRC2 Seattle. Where "C2" means that the commission rate is 2%.

After receiving the payment, the seller pays the commission to the middleman.