TradeLane

In a recent competition regarding Customs Valuation, hosted by the Customs Valuation and Classification Institute under Korea Customs Services, our Tradewin Korea team won an Excellence Award.

The other night I was watching The Devil Wears Prada, one of my favorite movies. The best character is, of course, Miranda Priestly (played by Meryl Streep, in a role which is rumored to be based on real-life Vogue editor-in-chief, Dame Anna Wintour). Miranda’s character in the movie dictates “style” – but isn’t style, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder?

What if I told you classifying an airplane was like classifying the parts of the human body. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be an anatomist to be able to classify an airplane, but the intricacies do draw some parallels. The human body is made up of organs, tissue, muscles, bones, tendons, etc., whereas an airplane is made up of panels, motors, computers, seats, bolts and screws, and thousands of other parts.

Incoterms® are defined by International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to facilitate trade across the globe. They are internationally accepted standards which define the responsibilities of sellers and buyers for delivery of goods under sales contracts. Incoterms® are used to specify how the costs and risks associated with the cross-border transportation of goods are borne between the buyer and seller.

This is one of those scenario’s we see all the time:

Asia Customs Broker: Hello, Mr. Ahmad, we are sorry. The customs documentation cannot be completed because we are missing the HS codes. Can you provide us with the correct one so that we can proceed with the permit application and import declaration, please?

Logistics Employee:Can’t you check our previous shipments? This is not the first time we have imported similar materials into our warehouse! You should have all the details!