International Trade Regulations

When conducting business between the United States and another country, you most likely will have to contend with a multitude of national tariffs, regulations, and documentation requirements of both countries.

Exporting

Generally speaking, if you are the exporter, you are responsible for shipping your product abroad by employing the services of a freight forwarder.  It is the responsibility of your customer, the importer, to deal with import regulations and paying any customs duty in the import country.  He or she usually employs the services of a customs broker to handle these details.  However, if you are exporting a product sensitive to national security, it is your responsibility to be aware of any U.S. export restrictions.  Furthermore, despite the fact that it is not usual for the exporter to be liable for import regulations, it would not be a bad idea to be aware of them for your intended export country.

Finding import regulations of foreign countries is often quite difficult to uncover, however, SIBL holds a limited number of resources. There are also some official and unoffical websites that cover this area as well as U.S. export regulations.

• One can find out about business regulations and practices in foreign countries, including some legal information, through Dun & Bradstreet’s Exporters' Encyclopaedia (*R-SIBL HF3011.E9), which has a several page chapter on almost every country.
• Also in SIBL’s collection is a series of handbooks called Doing Business in … (ex. Doing Business in Japan) published by Price Waterhouse. 
• The U.S. Department of State’s Country Commercial Guides, found within the Globus & NTDB database, contain a section titled “trade regulations and standards” found in each country’s report relating trade restrictions peculiar to that country.
• The Hong Kong Trade Development maintains a page of Customs, Tariffs and Import Duties for hundreds of countries worldwide including necessary documentation, import and export restrictions, contacts, etc.
• Consult U.S. Export Regulations (*R-SIBL KF1987.A15.U84) for handling export products sensitive to national security.
• Information about export documents, licenses and requirements can be found on the Bureau of Industry and Security (formerly the Bureau of Export Administration) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection sites.
• AES Direct is the U.S. Census Bureau's online database for filing Shipper's Export Declaration (SED) information.
• Trading with the NAFTA countries, Canada and Mexico, is detailed on the U.S. Trade Information Center’s NAFTA site and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection site.
• You may be exporting to a country with which the United States already has an existing free trade agreement. Consult www.tradeagreements.gov for a list of these countries and pending agreements under negotiation and/or ratification.

Importing

As an importer you are responsible for knowing all about U.S. import regulations and customs duty.  An experienced customs broker can help immensely with this task.  See the next chapter on Shipping and Logistics for information about finding customs brokers.

• General information about U.S. trade regulations can be found at the website of the U.S. Customs & Border Protection, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  Here, one finds a variety of links to import duty rates, quotas, international agreements, etc.
• Importing into the United States: A Guide for Commercial Importers – Published by the U.S. Customs Service.
• Customs regulations are found in Title 19 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) both in print in the library’s collection and online in the CFR section of the National Archives and Records Administrations site. 
• For those importing substances which may pose a risk to the environment or human health, the federal EPA has developed a reference site International Compliance & Enforcement Activities, International Import and Export.
• Further information about products regulated in the United States, from Acetaminophen to Xylene, can be found at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission site.
• Import duties are determined by consulting the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) which is available in print in SIBL’s collection and online on the HTS section of the United States International Trade Commission site and also on the HTS section of the U.S. Trade Information Center site.
• Another useful reference work regarding import and United States regulations is the Ports of Entry & U.S. Import Regulations (*R-SIBL KF6680.99.P67) published under the main title of U.S. Custom House Guide.