Global trade experts will explain the importance of automating trade compliance processes and the difficulties oil and gas companies face, as well as present recent developments in the industry. By attending this webinar, you will walk away with:

-  A better understanding of the export compliance challenges oil and gas companies are facing
-  Various strategic considerations to think about when implementing an automated trade compliance solution
-  Best practices you can use to improve your company’s export compliance processes

Speakers will include:
Scott Byrnes, Vice President of Marketing, Amber Road (formerly Management Dynamics, Inc.)
Natalia Shehadeh, Director of Trade Compliance, Weatherford
Scott Johnston, Attorney, Specializing in U.S. Import/Export Law, Givens & Johnston, PLLC

Join us and find out how you can automate your trade compliance process!

International Sourcing Strategies

Taking a proactive approach to the implications of offshore sourcing helps protect your bottom line. Many North American manufacturers are finding it increasingly challenging to deal with a growing influx of imported materials and products originating from off competitors, especially those based in China and India.

These competitive pressures are compelling Canadian and US companies to consider various measures to protect market share, including shifting their sourcing arrangements for components, peripherals and finished products outside of North America, to take advantage of lower cost alternatives originating in the emerging economies of Asia, Eastern Europe and South America.

This post highlights the importance of doing the appropriate research and background checks of all the cost and regulatory elements BEFORE you commit buying components or finished goods from new off shore vendors.

Why is this more important than ever?

Because North American manufacturers have traditionally sourced most of their materials in the US., Canada or Mexico, where duty is generally not an issue of the goods are NAFTA qualifying, and Customs and regulatory issues are well documented and understood. These assumptions can not be taken for granted when sourcing goods outside North America. Canadian and US importers are encouraged to review the full spectrum of variables, including currency exchange ratios, marking and packaging requirements, duty rates and tariff treatment, anti-dumping/countervailing duty applicability, duty drawback eligibility, and NAFTA eligibility, if the offshore components are incorporated into products ultimately sold in Canada or the US.

For example, purchasing motors in China that are incorporated into machines you manufacture in Canada for sale to a customer in the US, may negate the finished product’s NAFTA eligibility and duty free status, thereby increasing the ultimate cost of the product, and possibly eroding your margin or forcing you to raise your retail price and risking your competitive position.

Conversely, if you purchase the motors from China and sell them to an US customer in the same condition and without modification, you may be eligible to recover all Canadian duties paid at time of import under the Duty Drawback program. Of course you will need to assess all the trade offs to arrive at a bottom line comparison that takes all the factors into consideration, and gives you and “apples to apples” view of the offshore versus North American sourcing options.

Taking a proactive approach to studying the implications of off shore sourcing can confirm that you will achieve the desired competitive cost advantage, help you avoid unexpected costs or surprises, and minimize the probability of unexpected regulatory issues with Canada Border Services Agency or United States Customs and Border Protection

Global Trade Management: Strategies for Mastering Trade Compliance and Supply Chain Complexity.

For this research report, Aberdeen surveyed 136 global exporters and importers in August and September of this year.

Their findings revealed that trade compliance teams are actively revamping and augmenting their Global Trade Management (GTM), specifically their Global Trade Compliance programs, to stay current with supply and demand fluctuations, growing global operations, increasing operational complexity and risk, and trade lane changes.

Here are a few key findings in the report:

• Best-in-Class companies had 8.2% in average trade compliance cost to value ratio
• Best-in-Class companies achieved 95.0% perfect order rate received on imports received from international suppliers
• Best-in-Class companies experienced 96.0% for perfect order rate delivered on exports to international suppliers/customers
• Best-in-Class companies improved their average trade compliance cost to value ratio by 1.4% improvement, year over year
• Best-in-Class companies increased their total land cost per unit handled versus prior year by 0.6%, a 5.5 percentage point

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, August 10, 2010 — Management Dynamics, a leading provider of Global Trade Management solutions, today announced the release of Trade Planner 3.0, a scenario-based planning tool that helps supply chain teams quickly and accurately evaluate alternative sourcing and distribution strategies to optimize total landed cost while assessing the impact of trade regulations.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, companies import nearly $2 trillion worth of products annually from over 150 countries, a number that is expected to triple by 2015. With the increasing pressure to cut costs, accommodate new trade regulations, and take advantage of new preferential trade agreements, businesses need planning tools to improve the design of their global supply chains.

“Companies today are moving beyond sourcing decisions based on the lowest product invoice and are evaluating multiple dimensions including transportation costs, duties and taxes, regulatory compliance, and other country risk factors,” said Janet Suleski, Research Director, Gartner.  “Scenario-based planning solutions provide key players across sourcing, logistics and compliance with the ability to make faster, more accurate sourcing and distribution decisions.”

With Management Dynamics’ Trade Planner solution, users can quickly and easily compare the costs of sourcing and distributing one or multiple products from multiple locations to identify the optimal decision.  Trade Planner allows users to import product descriptions, classify products and store classifications by country in a product repository.  Trade Planner is fully integrated with Management Dynamics’ Global Trade Content and supports classification by the Harmonized Schedules and Export Control Numbers for over 122 countries, and identifies all applicable embargoes, prohibitions, license requirements, and other product specific barriers to importing and exporting.

“Businesses are increasingly global in scope and need new planning tools to continually monitor total landed cost, model the cost reduction opportunities of shifting a supply base, evaluate new preferential trade agreements and assess the impact of new trade regulations,” said Nathan Pieri, SVP Marketing & Product Management, Management Dynamics, Inc.  “Today, some of the world’s largest companies in retail, food service, electronics, and apparel, are utilizing Trade Planner 3.0 across the enterprise to collaborate and make better sourcing and distribution strategies by considering both cost and associated risks.”

Trade Planner 3.0 is an on-demand application that can be quickly and cost-effectively deployed – typically in a few days.

For Additional information:
Make better-informed sourcing and distribution decisions. Maintain import and export compliance with on-demand access to the most comprehensive source of global trade content in the industry. Learn more at Trade Planner.

About Management Dynamics, Inc.
Management Dynamics is a leading provider of global trade management solutions that improve the performance of global supply chains for importers, exporters, logistics service providers, and carriers. The company’s solutions synchronize the flow of information among trading partners, optimize supply chain execution decisions, and streamline import and export processes to ensure trade compliance and minimize cost and risk involved in cross-border transactions. Management Dynamics’ time-proven solutions are used by more than 14,000 global users at some of the world’s most successful 3PLs, carriers, manufacturers, retailers, and high technology companies.

Sponsored by Management Dynamics (in partnership with BPE), the webinar will take place on July 28th at 2 pm ET.

The hour-long round table discussion will include the following expert panelists:

• Beth Peterson, President of BPE
• Joe Burks, Director of Trade Compliance for Cooper Industries
• Nathan Pieri, VP of Product Development and Marketing for Management Dynamics

These experts will discuss best practices for developing your company’s Export Management and Compliance Programs (EMCPs), including:

• Strategic value of your EMCP
• The core elements of an effective EMCP
• The steps required to build an EMCP
• Sharing your strategy with your C-level superiors

Learn how your company can implement processes and systems that ensure compliance with the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Best of all – it’s FREE!

Sign up today for: Building an Export Management and Compliance Program

Take the 2010 NAFTA Benchmarking Survey

If you do not manage trade agreements at your company, feel free to share the link with your colleagues.

Register Today for the Direct Import Webinar!

Free Trade Agreements play an integral part of your direct import strategy. Although it’s not on the agenda for the webinar, there will be a Q&A session at the end where you can ask any specific questions about the role of trade agreements in direct import!

In advance of the webinar, the webinar organizers ask you to please tweet your questions to Management Dynamics or World Trade on Twitter so they can be sure all questions are included.

From the WorldTrade Magazine description:

“Earlier this year, the world’s largest retailer announced projected cost savings of 5 – 15% by product category with an expanded direct import program.

While retailers, consumer goods companies and most global manufacturers have been importing for years, there is renewed interest in understanding all of the elements of a direct import program and the opportunity areas that can drive new supply chain efficiencies and boost product profitability.

The Direct Import Webinar will take a look at the foundation technologies for a direct import program, explore the implementation options by working with a global logistics provider, and discuss a number of successful case studies.

During this webinar, you will hear from a panel of industry experts to better understand how to:

• Optimize sourcing strategies across procurement, logistics and trade  compliance
• Better manage compliant orders with suppliers and plan shipments
• Coordinate origin logistics and reduce transportation spend
• Automate pre-clearance and reduce delays through Customs
• Monitor and manage global fulfillment issues to accelerate cash-cash cycles”

Click here for more details and to register for the webinar!

According to an MSNBC article, the ‘rules are complex, confusing.’ No kidding!!

It takes roughly 40 pages to spell out the FTC’s rules of the road for companies that want to make the Made in America claim. And those are just one of a half-dozen separate sets of rules that apply to “country of origin” labeling.

This doesn’t include the additional complex, confusing rules that make up free trade agreements. And this is why we have extensive networks of trade compliance professionals, customs brokers, customs law attorneys, and regulatory agencies such as the CBP & FTC, constantly working with companies to either ensure their products are in compliance with these complex rules, or to work towards improving the rules.

As is the nature of government, products pop up or change faster than the rules are made, so the entire system is in constant flux. So if you think you’ve got those 40 pages of regulations memorized today, unless you are keeping up-to-date on new developments, you will soon be left in the dust when the rules change.

What does that entail? Well, you could be subject to duties when you thought your items were duty-free, and you could be subject to fines & penalties. Or you could be uneccesarily paying taxes on free-trade eligible items – and don’t bet on the government knocking on your door to return your money!

What happens if you make a false “Made in America” claim? This article focuses on the consequences of selling in the US:

If you get caught, and the FTC decides you’ve crossed the line, you’ll get an order to stop making the claim. Most companies who get nabbed agree to stop making false Made in America claims without admitting or denying they did anything wrong. If you break the rules again, you’ll probably get hit with a heavy fine for each infraction.

But the FTC doesn’t have a Made in America Police browsing store shelves for violations. The agency relies on consumers to tip them to infractions. If you think a company is falsely making a “Made in America” claim, you can notify the FTC’s Complaint Assistant Web site.

For more answers to frequently-asked questions about Made in America regulations, visit: ‘Made in America rules’ are complex, confusing.

Trade Agreement Best Practices Benchmark Study

If your company is considering utilizing a free trade agreement such as NAFTA, or wants to maximize the savings from a free trade agreement, read our Trade Agreement Best Practices Benchmark.

Implementing and maintaining compliance with a free trade agreement is a complex and technical process. Make sure your company takes full advantage of the trade agreement savings by benchmarking your process against 300 respondents across many different industry verticals and revenue size.

Receive the Trade Agreement Best Practices Benchmark Study Now!

First, “Made in America? Not always ones you think” details the results of an informal poll MSNBC performed on it readers, asking for their favorite products that are made in the US. The results perfectly illustrate how most global corporations are strategically sourcing from low-cost countries to maximize both customer satisfaction, quality, and profits.

The list of US-made products also makes note of how these companies are taking advantage of globalization to grow their product lines without sacrificing quality:

In most cases, the companies readers named make some products in the United States but also rely on manufacturers in other countries to produce certain product lines or lower-priced items.

In addition to babies and crooked politicians, readers named these companies as producing their favorite US-made products. Can you name which ones on the list no longer have 100% US-based manufacturing?

• Harley Davidson
• Craftsman Tools
• Red Wing Shoes
• Levi’s clothing
• Fender guitars
• Smith & Wesson
• All-clad cookware
• Weber grills
• KitchenAid stand mixers
• Zippo
• Fiesta Dinnerware
• Cars

Most of these manufacturers go on to say, they aim to provide low-cost, high quality items- whether that means sourcing from home or looking overseas. They also supplement their main US-made product line with accessories or low-end items sourced internationally sourced. For example:

Larry Costello, spokesman for the Sears tool line [Craftsman], said the company is always looking for the most cost-effective suppliers to manufacture its products, and that hand tools made overseas carry the same warranty as those made domestically.

Weber-Stephens Products Co. says most of its barbecues, including the iconic kettle grill, are manufactured in the United States at factories in the Chicago area.

Mike Kempster, the company’s chief marketing officer, said the only exceptions are certain accessories, such as toolsets, and its Spirit line of gas grills, which are made in China.

The company also occasionally relies on overseas suppliers for certain, low-value parts, because they aren’t available in the U.S., Kempster said.

Others are moving their manufacturing as part of a low-cost country sourcing initiative. Whirlpool, which owns the US-made mixer manufacturer KitchenAid, announced that it would close its refrigerator plant in Evansville, Ind., and move that production to Mexico. Sounds like they are cutting labor costs & taking advantage of NAFTA.

Additionally, some products are made in America- but by foreign companies. Many people listed their car as their favorite Made in USA item – whether that’s a Ford, Chevy, Nissan, or Honda, these companies manufacture their vehicles in the US.

Still trying to figure out which of the list is 100% Made in America? Check out the slideshow on MSNBC for the answers.

• Twitter – I’ve found this is the best & fastest way of getting breaking news about international trade and the global supply chain. And there are many trade compliance experts on Twitter in case you need an instant answer for a nagging question!

• LinkedIn – Join other trade agreement professionals to discuss news, upcoming conferences, and networking opportunities. With the highest concentration of supply chain professionals compared to other social networking sites, LinkedIn is a great resource for networking and online discussions – but response times are slower than Twitter.

• YouTube – Finally, you can tell the truth when you tell your boss you’re using YouTube for work purposes! But seriously, there are plenty of helpful videos (especially on our channel) to aid visual & auditory learners.