TradeLane

I originally wrote this blog back in 2013 and it’s as important now as it was then. The landscape has changed a little, with NAFTA now front and center, but good trade compliance is still good business!

When your organization is faced with compliance issues that never seem to go away, an objective review by a third party may allow your company to focus on the aspects of the business that you do best. Importers and exporters are held accountable for compliance with Customs requirements, and must use “reasonable care” in their international trade processes.

What does this mean, and how do you know when it’s time to engage a trade compliance expert?

While releasing his National Security Presidential Memorandum on Strengthening the Policy of the United States Toward Cuba, President Trump’s June 16^th remarks purported to scale back the historic rapprochement the Obama Administration had put in motion during the last two years of that presidency.

However, it may be too soon to tell if anything substantive will truly change in our dealings with the island nation.

I will be safely flying to Seattle tonight. From Charleston, SC to Boston and then on to Seattle. I listened to the Governor of South Carolina talk about assessing the ongoing risk and damage to the environment, to assets and to people’s lives. There are currently more than 500 roads closed in South Carolina. A cascade of dams are being breached. As my wife, Liz was driving us through the 18” of water on the road we were looking around at the carnage and it got me thinking about how this risk might have been assessed and mitigated earlier versus just assessing and repairing the damage after the fact.

In a similar manner, unidentified risks can lead to unexpected damage to your company. Experience tells us that it often starts with a single-issue request for information (CF28) from Customs and Border Protection and cascades like those dams, where each failure swiftly leads to the uncovering of others. I am sure that you have seen this. One classification inquiry leads to a second, and a third and then a request for a sample, and documents confirming transaction value. Then what about those free trade claims? It is very difficult to stop the process once it starts.

I’m often asked for a link to one government site or another.  There are certainly hundreds of sites to choose from. Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.  Here is a short list of web sites that contain some basic guidance for a laundry list of compliance issues. 

Have a favorite of your own that didn't make the list? Let us know in the comments below. 

We’ve never had a problem before. Do I need to worry?

Many companies regard export compliance as a low priority. Money talks and unlike the import side of the ledger, there are no duties that must be paid on exports out of the United States. If there are no duties to collect, does anyone really care?