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The
Basics of Importing can be divided into several steps:
STEP ONE - THE
PLAN The first step
when importing is to determine why you are importing. Ask
yourself the following three questions:
- Is the
product(s) you need to conduct your business available domestically?
- Have you
discovered a lucrative and untapped domestic market for an imported
product?
- Does importing
a product increase your competitiveness as a business?
Once you have
determined that importing certain goods can benefit your business, the
next process in Step One is to develop a thorough business
plan. When building your business plan determine the domestic
target market, evaluate government regulations and pay attention to the
nature of the product to determine the proper Harmonized Tariff
Schedule (HTS) product classification. The HTS compiled by the US
Government will better enable you to understand applied tariffs
assessed to your merchandise. Most tariffs applied to
merchandise are ad valoreom, which equates to a
certain percentage of duty on invoiced cost your imported
product. For
comprehensive HTS tariff determination for your imports access the fee
based
www.tariffic.com or
www.apectariff.org websites or
contact the Government Printing Office (GPO) bookstore to purchase a
hard copy of the US Harmonized Tariff Schedules.
In the business
plan process you need to determine if the government of the imported
product has any imposed quota restrictions to protect various domestic
industries, or there might be restrictions because the product may be
harmful to human, animal or plant health. Without properly
researching this information you may be stuck with boxes of un-sellable
merchandise at Customs.
To further your
research, the US Census Bureau of Foreign Trade Statistics at
www.census.gov , The US Chamber of Commerce at www.uschamber.org
and Portals to the World at
www.loc.gov offer in depth business and demographic research
and business reference links for your country of interest.
The following
list of websites will be helpful in the business planning process.
Market Research Reference Tools:
Foreign
Trade Online and World Trade Magazine Online
are informational resources for conducting market research on specific
industry related, trade leads and topics. It can act as a
helpful tool for identifying competitors both national and
international. You can access this information through
www.foreign-trade.com
World
Trade Magazine Online is an good resource for current global
trade information
www.worldtrademag.com
World
Trade Ref now contains
tables of import and export document requirements for the top 50
trading nations. World Trade Ref now has the ability to
translate 3,127 trade related terms from and to 8 different languages:
Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and
Spanish.
www.worldtraderef.com
USA Trade Online (www.usatradeonline.gov ) is a
subscription service that also aims to help importers determine who
their competitors are and what the domestic market is for any
particular product. This web site can work in conjunction
with STAT-USA www.stat-usa.gov
which is a service provided by the Department of Commerce
that provides current and historical foreign trade data and country
analysis. For specific
written materials on importing and exporting, the Department of
Commerce�s Business and International Trade Bookstore can be a great
resource and can be accessed at www.Tradecenter.ntis.gov
Editor's Note: Proper
research is crucial to businesses who wish to break into the import
field. Before you begin, we recommend you have a thorough understanding
of government regulations concerning the import process. Supplemental
information to this article is provided by Informed Trade International
under the "Import Guide" and "How to Import" sections of their web site.
The
Electronic Embassy website,
www.embassy.org is
helpful is routing you to international embassies which can also act as
another market research resource.
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