International Trade Blog

How many ways are there to classify things? When my kids were little my mother bought them way too many Beanie Babies, but sometimes it was fun (and kind of educational) to classify them. The Beanie Babies could be organized by type of animal or by color or by what they ate or type of habitat.

You could say that governments do the same thing with goods. Sometimes goods are classified on the basis of their objective characteristics. Sometimes they are classified based on their use. Today I’m going to compare two types of classifications, the Harmonized System (HS) codes and the Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCN).

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Occasionally I’ll get a call from someone who says, “I’m almost done filling out my NAFTA Certificate of Origin. I just need to know how to complete items 7, 8 and 9. What do I put in those columns?”

Well, that’s the rub isn’t it? The rest of the form is easy, but the meat of it is in those three columns. Those columns determine whether your goods deserve preferential duty treatment under the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

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Shipping Solutions export documentation and compliance software added the ability to hide or display the Schedule B Code on the Commercial and Proforma Invoices in Version 9.15 and 8.15 of the software. If you have upgraded from a previous version of Shipping Solutions, please double-check the setting before printing your paperwork.

Most of the time, exporters will want to include the Schedule B or Harmonized System number (these codes are not the same) of their items on their Commercial and Proforma invoices. However, there are some situations where you shouldn't include HS numbers on your invoices. To accommodate all situations, an option was added to Shipping Solutions export software to allow you to display or not display the codes.

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It has only been a couple months since we released a new version of Shipping Solutions, but the release of Incoterms® 2020 Rules necessitated another update. If you are an active Annual Maintenance Program (AMP) subscriber, you can download the update from the AMP website.

Versions 9.15 and 8.15 have fewer changes than most new releases of Shipping Solutions. The major changes are to the Incoterms and the Restricted Party Screening feature. There were also a few minor fixes you might be interested in.

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Shipping Solutions now includes the ability to get a Certificate of Origin certified by a chamber of commerce right from the software.

If you are used to manually creating your certificate of origin, delivering it to a local chamber, waiting for it to be reviewed, signed and returned to you and then sending it to your customer, you can save a lot of time, and probably money, by completing your certificates of origin through Shipping Solutions.

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Shipping Solutions Professional version 9.14 includes several new features for the Data Exchange Manager (DXM) when using the text file and ODBC methods to import data from your accounting, order-entry or ERP system.

In addition, if you are already using the DXM with the text-file method, there is a simple step you need to do after upgrading to 9.14.

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Shipping Solutions export software is pleased to announce the release of Professional version 9.14 and Classic version 8.14.

If you are an active Annual Maintenance Program (AMP) subscriber, you can download the update from the AMP website.

The new versions include the following enhancements.

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You’ve probably known since grade school that Puerto Rico is not a state. But do you know what it is?

It’s an unincorporated United States territory in the Caribbean Sea made up of a main island plus several smaller islands with a population of about 3.5 million people.

But what does it mean to be an unincorporated U.S. territory?

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U.S. export laws are complex, but there is one piece that is fairly straight-forward and easy to understand: the Schedule B. The Schedule B is the export classification system of the United States, and is administered by the Foreign Trade Division of the Census Bureau, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

A Schedule B code is 10 digits long, and there is a Schedule B code for every product. The codes are used by the Census Bureau to collect and publish U.S. export statistics.

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Shipping Solutions Professional includes a Data Exchange Manager (DXM) that allows you to import orders from your company’s accounting, order-entry or ERP system into Shipping Solutions Professional and produce your export documents, file your export information electronically through the Automated Export System (AES), and fulfill your export compliance requirements.

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