International Trade Blog

One of my favorite aspects of working with our customers is getting their feedback about the export processes and systems they use and love. However, there are some instances when I hear things that make me cringe.

This is especially true when I’m talking to people about export compliance. I ask them what they’re currently doing to stay compliant with export regulations.

Too often I hear: “We don’t have to worry about compliance because our items are EAR99.”

Facepalm.

What I then emphasize (often to deaf ears) is that EAR99 is not a pass to get out of the compliance due diligence process. In fact, determining the proper classification for your goods is only part of the compliance process—end use and end user make a difference!

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Dear Cathy:

We have an export customer who placed a telephone order for a shipment of goods they needed quickly. They gave us a purchase order number and instructed us to bill one of their subsidiaries.

We processed the order quickly and shipped with all the documents showing the customer as the subsidiary company as requested.

When we received a hard copy of the purchase order it was actually from the parent company and not the subsidiary. Now they are telling us that the parent company is the customer and that all paperwork should match the purchase order.

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If you ship goods domestically, you may wonder why you need to know Incoterms too. FOB is FOB, isn't it?

Well, actually, no—they’re not!

While the vast majority of companies in the U.S. use the shipping terms identified under the U.S. Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) when shipping domestically, these shipping terms aren't appropriate to use when exporting.

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We've made it to the big leagues. A Shipping Solutions blog post has been quoted in an article about Kim Kardashian.

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It's illegal to export to someone who appears on any of the government's denied party lists, also known as restricted party lists. And it's not just your customers. It's illegal to include any denied parties in any part of your transactions.

The best way to avoid doing this—and the only way to know for sure—is to run screenings for every single export that check all the parties against each denied party list.

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In a previous article, Deciding on Approriate Export Payment Terms, I suggested that companies should perform an annual review of payment terms for each of their customers. A company’s creditworthiness and/or their country’s risk factors may improve or decline over time, and you may need to adjust their payment terms accordingly.

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If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’ve probably seen or heard something (maybe a lot of things) about the end of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the beginning of a new trade agreement called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA.

Here’s the most important thing you need to know about free trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico: Nothing has changed! At least, not yet.

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Have you ever left a negotiation with a potential international client or partner and felt like you didn't get what you wanted or expected?

Maybe you were being honest about what you were thinking and that led to the other side taking the conversation in a direction you weren't expecting. Or perhaps you were trying to keep the conversation going when the other side just stopped talking.

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Product classification codes, which are used by the Census Bureau through the Automated Export System (AES) for trade statistic purposes and are also used at the country of import for assessing duties and taxes, are required for most exports.

For some exporters, getting started with product classification can be difficult. “I need a Schedule B number. How do I find the right number?” “Should I just start Googling?” “Is there recommended place to start?” are all questions we’ve been asked, and today, we’ll address them.

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Right now is the perfect time for your small company to explore the benefits and merits of exporting. Or, if you export a little bit already, right now is the time to look at expanding your exports to additional countries.

The U.S. Department of Commerce emphasizes that 97% of all U.S. exporters are small businesses. It also reports that 96% of the world's customers reside outside the United States.

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