Compliance Dept – Organization

QUESTION: Looking to know if when rolling out Trade Compliance General Awareness Training if you provide to the entire company or only those functions that interact or influence the trade compliance team? %%%%%%%%%% ANSWERS: The governmental sources and industry best practices consistently require (or at least suggest in guidelines) that trade compliance training reflect specific […]

QUESTION: I am interested in how the Compliance or import/export groups of the membership are structured with regard to salaried and hourly employees. Our group is strictly for Compliance.  We have a manager, who is a licensed customs broker and two coordinators. The coordinators are responsible for auditing Customs entries (self-filed and brokered), advising on […]

QUESTION: Does the membership have any bench-marking on trade compliance staff headcount depending on the size of the organization and/or total imports/exports? ========== Answers: I have not seen one but I look forward to the benchmarking survey if there is one. The metrics that you should be looking at are: 1) # of entries and […]

QUESTION: In a response to a recent question regarding corporate compliance activity, one responder wrote: “We had our department’s employment agreement letter changed to read that our duties would be performed on behalf of the company, subsidiaries and related affiliates to cover the corporate compliance activity. Our department expense is tied to the corporate allocation […]

QUESTION: Our company is looking to restructure and our Compliance Department is one of the areas where we are looking to make a change. There is a current debate as to where the compliance team should report. We are currently divided, some are thinking supply chain, some are thinking legal while others are saying merchandising. […]

QUESTION: Our company is looking to restructure and our Compliance Department is one of the areas where we are looking to make a change. There is a current debate as to where the compliance team should report. We are currently divided, some are thinking supply chain, some are thinking legal while others are saying merchandising. […]

QUESTION: I am developing a trade compliance internal webpage for our corporate locations. Does anyone have any tips or essentials that you can recommend that should be included on the site? ***************** Answers: First you may want/have to explain exactly what Trade Compliance is! Most in the organization probably have no clue. We also have […]

QUESTION: We will be purchasing a new product release from our manufacturers the new product will be shipped globally, however I was tasked to review what product certification and product information would be required to imports in several countries. This is to request the manufacturer to prepare such documentation for us to distribute globally. Do […]

QUESTION: The ICPA membership was amazing in providing me feedback on my employer’s lack of a trade compliance program several years ago. I took some great advice on how to proceed with caution and have made huge strides in getting the company on track. Our most senior leadership is driving for corrections, we now have […]

QUESTION: We are an U.S. based manufacturer for oil/gas drilling equipment. We are trying to decide whether a trade compliance specialist handling 80% export and 20% import should locate in the U.S. or Mexico. This employee will deal with U.S. customs brokers and freight forwarders all the time. Is he legally required to be located […]

QUESTION: I would like to start having internal conversations about establishing an Import Trade Compliance Program, maybe create a manual.    Do any members have a Scope statement that you could share? Also, could any members share how their import trade compliance look?  I am trying to envision and internalize the concept as how it should […]