Customs brokerage without the guesswork

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Customs is rarely the slowest leg until something is wrong with the paperwork, at which point it becomes the only leg. We handle clearance and review documents before they reach the border.

The documents that must be right

Commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading or air waybill and certificate of origin form the core set. The most common causes of a hold are wrong consignee details, a mismatched HS code, and a declared value that does not reconcile with the invoice.

Classification and duty

The HS code sets the duty rate and any licensing requirement. It should be applied consistently shipment after shipment, with the rationale on file. Duty is normally assessed on the customs value - generally the transaction value plus defined additions.

Why clean paperwork pays

A complete, consistent document set is often the difference between a same-day release and a multi-day inspection. We work to a checklist on every shipment so accuracy is a process, not a hope.

Valuation: what customs actually assesses

Duty is not charged on what you paid the supplier alone. Customs value is generally the transaction value plus defined additions, and which additions apply is a judgement that has to be documented rather than guessed. Freight and insurance, commissions outside buying commission, royalties, and goods or services supplied free of charge for use in production can all form part of the value.

The common failure is not dishonesty but inconsistency: a declared value that does not reconcile with the commercial invoice, or that changes between shipments of identical goods without an explanation on file. An entry that reconciles to its own documents and is applied the same way each time is the one that clears without questions. Where the treatment of an addition is genuinely unclear, the useful approach is to establish a position and keep the reasoning on file, so the next shipment is consistent with it.

Origin, preference and the evidence behind them

Preferential duty rates depend on origin, and origin is a legal determination based on where goods were substantially transformed - not on where they were shipped from, and not on who supplied them. A supplier invoice stating a country of origin is a statement, not proof, and a preference claim without valid supporting evidence is worse than no claim at all because it can be revoked after the fact.

The document that normally carries the claim is a certificate of origin issued by a body authorised to issue it, and its validity depends on its details matching the invoice and the goods. When a shipment is close to a preference threshold, the decision to claim should be made before the documents are issued rather than after, because adding a certificate to a shipment already in transit is rarely possible.

Compliance that survives being looked at

Clearance is a release, not a verdict. Entries can be reviewed after the goods have been delivered, and a file that cannot be reconstructed months later is exposed even when the original declaration was correct. What makes a file defensible is unglamorous: a consistent classification with the reasoning recorded, values that reconcile to invoices, and licences or permits held where one was required.

This is the part of brokerage that shows up as cost only when it is missing. Building the file properly on every shipment costs a little time routinely; rebuilding it in response to a query costs considerably more and does so at the worst possible moment. We work to a checklist on every shipment so that accuracy is a process rather than an intention.

Where a discrepancy is found after release, the response that limits the damage is speed and completeness rather than argument: establishing what was declared, what the correct treatment should have been, and what it affects. Handling that early is a correction; handling it late is a liability.