Documentation Requirements

Questions and answers about Documentation Requirements

  • WEIGHTS ON PACKING LISTS

      Question:   We have been informed by a customer in China that there is a requirement from   Chinese customs that the weight of each line on a packing list is itemized,   rather than the weight of the entire shipment being summarized, as it is our   current practice.   We asked the […]

  • Apparel Importers WAD sheet

      Question:   This is a question to all the apparel importers.  We have always required the Wearing Apparel Detail sheet (WAD) to be included with the commercial docs for all of our apparel entries.  Our invoice descriptions are generic, so the WAD, covers the additional invoice requirements in 141.89 (a).  We have a vendor […]

  • Invoice swap with courier

      Question: Typical Sales transaction from US to EU: USA group company A sells to UK group company B, then UK Company B sells to Customer C in Germany. When drop shipping from A to C, we ask a freight forwarder to switch commercial invoice upon arriving at destination for destination import clearance.  Company B […]

  • COO documentation

      Question: What Country of Origin Documentation do you require from your vendors and how do you retain / cross reference it? If you have a one-off sample shipment, do you require a formal certificate of origin? Do you rely on a statement similar to the the NAFTA written representation letter used in Annex 401 […]

  • FALSE BOL INFORMATION

    Question: Our CN office has just advised us that a shipment from our vendor was shipped w/ a shortage, however they filed their CN export clearance w/ the full quantity amount.  Now our BOL shows the incorrect amount and they are advising us it is too late to revise the documents. Obviously I’m pushing back […]

  • Steel Mill Certificate Requirement

    Question: I understand that US CBP requires “Mill Certificates” to be supplied at the time of entry when importing steel and steel products classified in Chapter 72 and 73 of the HS Tariff.   I am looking for the regulation that spells out specifically what is required.

  • PO Compliance Language

    Question: We currently have an “international” note which is manually entered for any international purchase orders.  It’s fairly lengthy and attempts to generally define our import requirements to vendors including marking, proper valuation, US HTS, ISF, etc.  If our compliance team makes changes to the note, a completely new note and name has to be […]

  • Request for CO Certs

    Question: We are inundated with requests for certificates of origin, not freetrade agreement certificates of origin.  When we ask about the reason for the request for this document, we hear that it is just standard practice to request it and more often than not the document itself ends up in a file and is not […]

  • Documentation

    We have upward of 3000 loads per year from our US parent company to our US sister company who acts as NRI into Canada.  One CHB clears all the loads into Canada.  We use SAP to generate all our customs invoices and either SAP or WMS to generate our BOLs.   We also use a […]

  • END USE VERIFICATION

    I have a heavy question for the membership. Our company has company-owned branch sales offices located around the world. In some particular countries, we require a standard end use statement, on company letterhead and signed by a company official, to be filled out detailing what exactly the customer will be doing with the product prior […]