Trade Compliance Checklist

Understand where to start and the steps you can take to ensure your company's trade compliance with Customs and turn your trade compliance and risk mitigation into a competitive advantage.

trade-compliance-checklist

Where to Start

1. Review your organization’s structure and importer numbers

2. Align the above with your geographic footprint (manufacturing locations, vendors, markets)

3. Map the flow of imports and exports into and out of each manufacturing location by dollar value annually

4. Prioritize geographic areas from highest to lowest value for both imports and exports

5. Identify specific products by dollar value imported into each region

6. Identify specific products by dollar value exported from each region

7. Identify trade compliance partners in each geographic area

8. Answer Trade Compliance Checklist below and utilize GHY as a complimentary resource to get started

Trade Compliance Checklist

  • Keep an up-to-date compliance manual.

  • Standard operating procedures are kept with brokers, carriers, and suppliers.

  • Hire/Hired compliance, customs, and logistics associates.

  • Regular training is conducted, including webinars / seminars are attended.

  • Cross train (when necessary) to purchasing, accounts payable and other applicable departments.

  • Reasonable care can be shown when we classify your goods and appropriate supporting documents are retained.

  • Shipments can be tracked by a unique identifier in the purchase to payment life cycle in our supply chain.

  • Identify if and what vendors or clients are related to your company by equity ownership.

  • Identify which goods qualify for and obtain Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) between the regions imported from and exported to.

  • Self or third party audits are regularly completed.

  • Record keeping processes are up to date and customs documents are easily accessible.

  • Post Entry processes are documented and established.

  • Regularly meet with your trade chain partners, CBSA, CBP Center of Excellence.

  • Registered for ACE for our U.S. Imports.

  • Understand and recognize the value in electronic data interchange or work with partners who invest in technology for us.

  • Use business intelligence tools to analyze your trade data.

  • Have reliable licensed partners to lean on for support.

Are you a...

New Importer

Experienced Importer

White Paper Series:

Integrated Trade Compliance Strategies 

Our White Paper series offer insight into why and where global strategies may be compromised by non-compliance; and providing ideas to turn trade compliance and risk mitigation into competitive advantage.

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