International Trade Blog

In today's global supply chain, it's rare for a product to come entirely from one place. Unless you’re a farmer who’s planting seeds grown in the U.S. and harvested from your own land or a miner who's extracting elements from the earth, it’s likely that at your goods contain parts from multiple countries or that you make a part that is one piece of a larger good.

For this reason, it’s crucial that you determine which of your parts and finished goods are subject to U.S. export regulations. These regulations might make it illegal for your products to be shipped to certain individuals and organizations or to certain countries. In other cases, you may be required to obtain an export license before you, or another party, can ship the goods to a certain destination.

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Exporters often think of chambers of commerce only in terms of signing certificates of origin. But there are other services and programs that chambers of commerce provide to assist you in your export process.

Business savvy managers utilize chambers of commerce routinely to help increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their international business.

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“I am spending way too much time creating exporting documents—half my day is gone by the time I finish creating all the required forms.”

“Creating export forms is tedious! Just one little mistake or inaccuracy on one form can hold up our goods (or worse)—and with all the forms I have to make, there’s a lot of room for error!”

“I’m panicking because I don’t know if our company is in compliance with export regulations for every shipment we do.”

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We all know intuitively what a part is. Nearly every company has a parts department. These are the areas of the company staffed by those magical people who never throw anything away and always seem to be able to find that one widget or what is needed to repair a product and satisfy a customer.

It comes as a surprise to some that the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) uses the word part with a much narrower and precise definition. What we call a part in industry is rarely what the HTS code refers to as a “part” or “parts thereof.” As examples, it is not uncommon to find headings in the tariff such as:

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Shipping Solutions export documentation and compliance software includes two types of Shipper's Letters of Instruction (SLI).

One type of SLI is used as a cover letter to convey specific instructions from the exporter to the agent, usually an international freight forwarder. The second type of SLI is used to provide to your freight forwarder all the information needed to file your Electronic Export Information (EEI) with AESDirect.

This video shows you how to create both types of SLIs in Shipping Solutions.

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The International rules for letters of credit, known as the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP), state, “A credit must state an expiry date for presentation” (Article 6d). It is relatively easy to find the expiry date in the letter of credit.

However, another date equal in importance is referred to as the last date for presentation. The presentation period—the window of time in which the exporter must present documents—is tied to the ship date as indicated in the original transport document.

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Do you want to go bungee jumping?

Perhaps this seems like a strange question, but stay with me. Are people who bungee jump crazy? Or are they just having fun and seeking an adrenaline rush?

No matter your opinion, the point is that bungee jumpers have assessed the risk and determined that it is acceptable.

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Dear Cathy,

We took a few export training sessions with you some time ago. Since our sessions with you, our staff in customer service raised a question about certificates of origin. I was wondering if you could help us.

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For national security and foreign policy reasons, the United States maintains controls on the export and re-export of U.S.-origin goods and technology to all destinations around the world. The broadest range of these export controls are found in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).

In this article, we’ll discuss the background of export regulations, look at the various agencies that control exports, and provide an overview of the EAR.

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It is now easier than ever for companies to reach potential export customers. By doing nothing more than hosting a web page and attending a few trade shows, even the smallest companies are reaching nearly as many potential international customers as only large multinational corporations could once afford to reach.

Even though it may be easier to locate potential international customers, that doesn’t automatically translate into a profitable, growing export business. You wouldn’t just hop in a car in a strange town and expect to find your destination without directions. Likewise, a company will quickly get lost in the world of exporting if it doesn’t know where it’s going and how to get there.

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