Import Compliance
I recently completed a US Customs Import Compliance project. As part of establishing the organization and processes to ensure compliance, we needed to get a large number of offshore parts categorized according to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule or HTS. While this might sound simple, the HTS structure is rather complex and you often need to verify correct interpretation by referencing notes within the document, US Customs explanatory notes and US Customs Rulings. We initially reviewed several commercially available "Global Trade Management" software packages but found that these are more focused on managing import/export transactions and typically have limited tools for part classification.
I did uncover two excellent software / database tools that directly solve the classification problem and are reasonably priced. The more general purpose tool is from Global Data Mining (GDM) and may be found at www.gdmllc.com. GDM maintains an extensive database under their sister company name of Customs Info. These include US Import/Export classifications, Explanatory Notes, Rulings, Foreign Import/Export classifications and rulings from Other Government Agencies. Their service can either provide look-up access to these databases or a Global Trade Desktop that provides a customized database to search, create and maintain part classification data. The desktop automatically cross references the various databases - providing an audit trail for how the classification was determined. It can also be setup to populate export data fields and as many foreign import data fields as desired. Beyond the product, they are also great people to work with and I highly recommend them.
If your needs are restricted to high tech products, there is another company with a very unique tool. Urusan Consulting (www.urusan-consulting.com) provides an expert system for determining HTS classifications. They have effectively coded the HTS structure, notes and rulings into a series of questions. This allows a person with reasonable product knowledge but almost no US Customs experience to effectively classify products. For the situation I encountered, this was very useful since it allowed for delegation of the classification task to individual product groups in multiple locations. The system is easy to use and has proven very effective. Here again, you are also dealing with exceptional people who are dedicated to providing a quality product and exceptional service.
