Compliance Services
Our compliance services cover the broader spectrum of trade compliance and regulatory adherence for your international shipping activities. We help establish and maintain practices to ensure your company follows all laws related to importing and exporting, including export controls, sanctions, and product-specific regulations in different countries.
We offer consulting on trade compliance programs, assisting you in developing internal policies and procedures for areas such as classification of goods (assigning the correct HS codes and export control numbers), record-keeping, restricted party screening, and obtaining necessary export licenses. We essentially help build a compliance framework tailored to your business.
For companies dealing with controlled goods (e.g., defense articles, dual-use technologies, sensitive electronics), we navigate the specific requirements. We handle applications for export licenses or import permits, ensure proper labeling and packaging per regulations, and monitor adherence to any special conditions for shipping these items.
We also perform compliance audits and training. Our team can audit your past import/export entries to identify any compliance gaps or errors, then help you correct them proactively. We provide training sessions for your staff on customs regulations, documentation best practices, and how to avoid common pitfalls in trade compliance.
Additionally, we keep you updated on regulatory changes – such as new tariffs, trade agreements, or sanctions – that could affect your supply chain. Our proactive approach means you can adjust your sourcing or shipping strategies in response to evolving trade policies (for instance, shifting suppliers if a country becomes sanctioned, or taking advantage of a new free trade agreement).
Benefits to Your Business:
- Risk Avoidance: By maintaining strong trade compliance, you significantly reduce the risk of customs penalties, shipment seizures, or legal troubles. This protects your company’s reputation and avoids disruptions that can arise from compliance violations or investigations.
- Smooth International Operations: When compliance is handled properly, your international shipments face fewer hurdles. You experience smoother customs clearances, fewer shipment delays due to paperwork issues, and better relationships with authorities – all contributing to a more reliable global supply chain.
- Access to New Opportunities: With expert guidance, you can confidently enter new markets or deal in sensitive goods knowing you’re meeting all requirements. For example, you might expand sales to government or defense sectors, or launch in countries with strict import rules, because you have the compliance framework to handle the associated regulations.
- Cost Management: Avoiding fines is an obvious saving, but compliance also reduces indirect costs. Proper classification and use of trade agreements can lower duties, and preventing shipment holds avoids extra storage fees. Moreover, by preventing major compliance issues, you save on legal fees and potential loss of market access.
- Organizational Efficiency: Having robust compliance processes and trained staff means fewer last-minute scrambles to fix paperwork or respond to authorities. Your operations run more predictably and efficiently, with a proactive approach that catches issues before shipments go out. This makes your overall supply chain more resilient and easier to manage.