Export and Import Compliance

Trade compliance encompasses all of an organization’s processes and procedures that ensure it complies with domestic and international trade rules, regulations, and laws. It includes interrelated concepts like import compliance, export compliance, and import and export controls. Effective trade compliance typically requires that an organization embed its control systems across multiple departments (like legal, operations, and sales) to decrease the chances of running afoul of national and international trade rules.

Import compliance refers to the entirety of an organization’s import control and management systems. These systems are designed to decrease the likelihood of the organization contravening a domestic or international trade rule or law. Effective import compliance must typically involve employees and departments from all parts of the company’s supply chain.

The process of import and export depends on a huge number of factors, including the country of origin and the destination country of the goods being shipped, the identity of the importer and exporter, the customs rules and regulations of the importing and exporting nations. Even in cases where the importing and exporting nations are members of a free trade agreement, the import and export process is extraordinarily complex. An import and export compliance regime should be in place to ensure adherence to all local and international trade rules.

You get an import license in different ways, depending on the country in which you reside and the type of good you seek to import. For example, American citizens typically don’t need a license to import most goods. However, certain categories of merchandise require them to obtain a license in order to comply with import and export controls. In most cases and countries, you apply to your national Customs control agency to obtain an import license.