Mastering Import and Export Management - Hardcover

Cook, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814438202 ISBN 13: 9780814438206

Publisher: AMACOM, 2017

Synopsis

Look beyond the borders and unlock your company’s potential from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the Deep South to the Great Lakes.

According to the US Department of Commerce, more than $1.6 trillion in goods are exported annually to dozens of countries, while nearly $2.4 trillion are imported. What could your company’s share in that be?

Filled with step-by-step instructions, cost-effective strategies, and ready-to-use forms, this book walks you through every key area of this lucrative expansion opportunity for your business, from handling logistics to building a global team to complying with post-9/11 security measures to clearly documenting shipments using Incoterms.

In Mastering Import & Export Management, you will also find:

• Strategies for reducing risk and spend in global supply chains
• New documentation, operations, and procedures
• Trade compliance SOPs
• Guidance on managing transportation service providers
• E-commerce in international trade

Completely updated, this all-encompassing, self-directed guide simplifies all the latest regulations and gathers together the best practices in the evolving field of import/export.

You will have all the knowledge and tools required to overcome any challenge and expand their business into lucrative new frontiers.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas A. Cook has 35 years of experience in global logistics and international business, and 25 years teaching with the American Management Association, National Institute for World Trade, and the District Export Councils. Kelly Raia has years of experience in international global supply chain, with a focus on trade compliance.

From the Back Cover

he landscape of international trade is constantly shifting—and riddled with potential pitfalls. Mastering Import & Export Management is the roadmap you need to successfully navigate the often confusing and sometimes treacherous terrain. The third edition of this invaluable handbook has been thoroughly up-dated to provide essential information on the major regulatory changes in the global marketplace, as well as new documentation, operations, and procedures. It offers you powerful strategies for moving goods and services internationally in the safest, most efficient, and cost-effective manner possible.

Included in this new edition are templates of the current forms and procedures required by the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Bureau of Export Administration, and other involved government and trade agencies. This completely revised edition untangles all the rules and regulations and provides up-to-the minute changes in these crucial areas: Mastering the new challenges of import and export operations • Expanding global sourcing • Reducing risk and spend in global supply chains • Handling inbound and out-bound logistics • Administering INCO terms • Grasping documentation, regulations, operations, and procedures • Supervising freight forwarders and customhouse brokers • Applying trade compliance SOPs to developing export markets • Managing transportation service providers and carriers • Under-standing how e-commerce works in international trade • Leveraging free trade agreements/bonded warehouses/foreign trade zones to gain competitive advantage.

Import/export is a multitrillion-dollar business and the mainstay of an expanding global economy. If you want to operate successfully in this vigorous international arena, you need a new and more comprehensive knowledge base (especially in the face of increasing levels of government scrutiny and the intensified security concerns that have arisen since 9/11). By consulting this authoritative manual, you’ll be able to manage trade compliance more effectively, and learn all the latest ways to:

• Lower costs in shipping, inventory management, and order processing

• Develop resources and networking channels

• Choose the right personnel and foreign suppliers

• Meet sales and service demands

• Deal efficiently with government agencies and oversight

• Use technology to gain the competitive edge

• Ship perishable freight

• Establish safe, secure, and compliant supply lines—and control cargo loss

• Leverage key practices in the entertainment and communications industries

• Identify and minimize potential political, environmental, and credit risks

• And much more.

Here is the one resource that will help you create and smoothly operate a viable, legal, and profitable import/export business. Using the information and following the steps and strategies provided in this definitive guide, you’ll be able to identify and pursue valuable opportunities while maneuvering deftly through the jungle of compliance regulations and erratic economic realities. Throughout corporate America, personnel, resources, and infrastructure are being redeployed to manage supply chains that include greater foreign purchases and an expanding global market. Mastering Import & Export Management is the key to staying on top of the great game of international trade.

Thomas A. Cook has 35 years of professional experience in global logistics and international business, and 25 years as an instructor at the American Management Association, the National Institute for World Trade, and the District Exports Councils.

Kelly Raia has years of experience in the international global supply chain field.

From the Inside Flap

he landscape of international trade is constantly shifting—and riddled with potential pitfalls. Mastering Import & Export Management is the roadmap you need to successfully navigate the often confusing and sometimes treacherous terrain. The third edition of this invaluable handbook has been thoroughly up-dated to provide essential information on the major regulatory changes in the global marketplace, as well as new documentation, operations, and procedures. It offers you powerful strategies for moving goods and services internationally in the safest, most efficient, and cost-effective manner possible.

Included in this new edition are templates of the current forms and procedures required by the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Bureau of Export Administration, and other involved government and trade agencies. This completely revised edition untangles all the rules and regulations and provides up-to-the minute changes in these crucial areas: Mastering the new challenges of import and export operations • Expanding global sourcing • Reducing risk and spend in global supply chains • Handling inbound and out-bound logistics • Administering INCO terms • Grasping documentation, regulations, operations, and procedures • Supervising freight forwarders and customhouse brokers • Applying trade compliance SOPs to developing export markets • Managing transportation service providers and carriers • Under-standing how e-commerce works in international trade • Leveraging free trade agreements/bonded warehouses/foreign trade zones to gain competitive advantage.

Import/export is a multitrillion-dollar business and the mainstay of an expanding global economy. If you want to operate successfully in this vigorous international arena, you need a new and more comprehensive knowledge base (especially in the face of increasing levels of government scrutiny and the intensified security concerns that have arisen since 9/11). By consulting this authoritative manual, you’ll be able to manage trade compliance more effectively, and learn all the latest ways to:

• Lower costs in shipping, inventory management, and order processing

• Develop resources and networking channels

• Choose the right personnel and foreign suppliers

• Meet sales and service demands

• Deal efficiently with government agencies and oversight

• Use technology to gain the competitive edge

• Ship perishable freight

• Establish safe, secure, and compliant supply lines—and control cargo loss

• Leverage key practices in the entertainment and communications industries

• Identify and minimize potential political, environmental, and credit risks

• And much more.

Here is the one resource that will help you create and smoothly operate a viable, legal, and profitable import/export business. Using the information and following the steps and strategies provided in this definitive guide, you’ll be able to identify and pursue valuable opportunities while maneuvering deftly through the jungle of compliance regulations and erratic economic realities. Throughout corporate America, personnel, resources, and infrastructure are being redeployed to manage supply chains that include greater foreign purchases and an expanding global market. Mastering Import & Export Management is the key to staying on top of the great game of international trade.

Thomas A. Cook has 35 years of professional experience in global logistics and international business, and 25 years as an instructor at the American Management Association, the National Institute for World Trade, and the District Exports Councils.

Kelly Raia has years of experience in the international global supply chain field.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Importers have an array of steps they must take to purchase goods from foreign suppliers. Some of these steps are

1. Make sure all of the entities you are doing business with are legitimate. This is general business sense--make sure you check them out, as you would any party within the United States, before you enter an agreement. I am always astonished at the lack of due diligence in checking out foreign suppliers in the face of million-dollar transactions.

2. In addition, you should check all of the U.S. government lists, like Denied Parties, Unverified, Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) Sanctions, and State Department, to make sure the party and individuals you are engaging are not on them. In the appendix, the access to these government sites is provided. It is part of an importer's due diligence to make sure these lists are checked.

3. Make sure that the supplier can meet all of your manufacturing and production needs. I would suggest that before moving all of your business to the new supplier and reaching long-term agreements, you allow a period of testing and review. There should be no reason to rush into a new supplier and arrange a long-term agreement until you are reasonably sure it can meet your needs on a timely and efficient basis. Do not give up your existing supply lines until the new one is solid. You may want to "wean" the new one into full time while the other is gradually turned off.

4. Review all vulnerabilities and set up "plan Bs" and contingency arrangements. Set up a committee with all of those engaged in the inbound supply chain. Make a checklist of "what ifs" and vulnerabilities. Then create a new checklist with a proactive strategy to deal with all of the issues.

5. Work with qualified consultants and attorneys in the United States and locally overseas. Typical "house" counsels lack the expertise required and ultimately can cause more harm than good. Check with outside counsel, trade associations, the Internet, and vendors for names of experienced international legal counsel. The National Institute for World Trade (NIWT.org) is a reputable option in this regard.

6. Develop contracts that limit exclusivity and have arbitration agreements in them. Do not commit to deals that restrict your ability to change or modify the agreement, if you're not satisfied with your supplier's performance. All disputes should be settled in a neutral setting like an arbitration panel in London, Toronto, or Sydney, not in the country where you are sourcing your goods.

7. Do extensive product testing before entering the U.S. market or for use in your full-scale manufacturing. It can become a real embarrassment when you have a "boatload" of goods coming in and the prototypes are not meeting specification. Buying from overseas markets requires patience and thorough diligence.

8. Make sure your suppliers' products meet all regulatory requirements. These include customs, OSHA, USDA/FDA, BATF, DEC, DOT, FCC, and CDC, to name a limited few. It is imperative that the importer coordinates the import legal requirements with the various agencies that govern the specific product line. In many cases, there could be multiple agencies involved with similar or conflicting regulations. Larger corporations may have multiple compliance specialists in the various purviews, like a pharmaceutical company that would have a FDA compliance person, an OSHA compliance person, and an import compliance manager.

9. Make sure your new supplier meets all packing, marking, and labeling requirements. It is an importer's responsibility, typically as "importer of record," to ensure the goods entering the United States meet all requirements for how they are marked, packed, and labeled. For example, a cereal product must have the carton and internal wrapping meet FDA standards. The outside of the carton must meet United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines on communicating product, handling, and nutritional information.

With new security guidelines in place, like the 24-Hour Manifest Ruling and the Importers Security Filing (ISF), the importer must make sure that the details of what is entering the United States are manifested by the inbound ocean carrier at least twenty-four hours prior to the vessel sailing from the exporter's outbound port.

Timeframes for new changes have occurred since 2008 and continue into 2018.

10. Control the inbound logistics by controlling the terms of purchase. Use free on board (FOB) or (FCA) Outbound Gateway or Ex Warehouse International Commercial (INCO) Terms. This will give you control of the inbound supply chain. This will typically allow you better pricing, control of delivery scheduling, and control of all compliance responsibilities.

Many importers have determined, unwisely, that removing themselves from the hassles of the import process and inbound logistics serves their best interests. My group has studied this circumstance for over twenty years. Every analysis clearly points out that importers are always in a "best served" position when they control the inbound and "importer of record" responsibilities.

The importer benefits in reducing overall logistics costs, managing compliance and security requirements, and maintaining control over the inbound status and disposition of the imported merchandise.

Excerpted from MASTERING IMPORT & EXPORT MANAGEMENT, 3RD EDITION by Thomas A. Cook with Kelly Raia. Copyright © 2017 by Thomas A. Cook. Published by AMACOM Books, a division of American Management Association, New York, NY. Used with permission.

All rights reserved. http://www.amacombooks.org.

Edition details

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814438202
• ISBN 13: 9780814438206
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 688