TradeLane

Over the last two weeks, requests for training seminars and workshops have really accelerated.  It might be our charming speakers, the nice weather, or perhaps, unbeknownst to me of course, that they are serving sangria at lunch. Regardless of the reason I thought I would touch on some of the unsung benefits of HTS Classification training. 

If you are in compliance, at some point in your career you have asked an engineer for the type of screw in a machine. Maybe you asked what it was made out of, or the head type, and they looked at you quizzically and likely ignored your request. They may have given you the look that said… “Those regulatory people must be fun at parties...”  (We are, but only because the Tariff drives us to drink).  For those lucky people with apparel classification, we need to know the thread count… really we do.

As a supposed trade expert, I am in daily contact with a variety of import and export clients. I assess compliance risk, write procedure manuals and offer advice when things go terribly wrong in the course of a client’s importing or exporting process. One particular conference call reminded me that while the vast array of acronyms and abbreviations are useful and necessary within the international trade community as a whole, they can be mystifying to folks working in logistics but not directly in trade compliance.  That call went something like this...

Compliance manuals are excellent vehicles to help importers and exporters ensure that they are doing everything they can to operate in conformity with the various laws and regulations under which they operate. The trick, however, is in deciding what actually needs to go into the manual.

A good jumping off point is to take a realistic look at the way your enterprise operates, and then ascertain what kinds of risk your various activities present to a regulator.