INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW
International Trade Law Articles
Customs classification, export controls, sanctions, and the compliance work that keeps cross-border business moving.
426 articles
Trade Compliance KPIs Cheatsheet for Import-Export Teams
Trade compliance KPIs are the handful of numbers that tell you whether your import-export program is working — before CBP tells you it isn’t. The metrics …
Trade Compliance Outsourcing: A Practical Guide
Trade compliance outsourcing means hiring an outside provider — a customs broker, consultant, or law firm — to handle some or all of your import and export …
Trade Compliance Penalties: A Cheat Sheet
Customs penalties under 19 U.S.C. § 1592 scale with how much fault is involved — the same mistake costs far more if it was fraudulent than if it was merely …
Trade Compliance Recordkeeping Cheat Sheet
Most U.S. trade records must be kept for five years, and on the import side that clock starts on the date of entry. Recordkeeping is the least glamorous part of …
Trade Compliance Risk Assessment Cheat Sheet
A trade compliance risk assessment is a structured review of your import and export activity to find where you are most likely to break a rule — so you can fix …
Trade Compliance Technology: What It Does
Trade compliance technology automates the repetitive, high-volume parts of import and export compliance — screening parties against government lists, …
Trade Embargo vs. Sanctions: Key Differences
A trade embargo is a near-total ban on commerce with an entire country or region, while “sanctions” is the broader toolkit that can target a whole …
Trade Facilitation: A Guide for U.S. Traders
Trade facilitation is the simplification, standardization, and modernization of the customs procedures that goods pass through when they cross borders. The goal …
Trade Law and Global Supply Chains: A Guide
International trade law shapes global supply chains through four main forces: tariffs that set the cost of moving goods, trade agreements that set the rules …
Trade Liberalization vs. Protectionism Explained
Trade liberalization lowers the barriers that stand between a country and foreign goods; protectionism raises them. Liberalization means cutting tariffs, …
Trade Remedies vs Trade Retaliation Explained
Trade remedies and trade retaliation are both ways countries respond to trade they consider harmful, but they work very differently. Trade remedies are …
Trade Surplus vs. Trade Deficit: What They Mean
A trade surplus means a country exports more goods and services than it imports; a trade deficit means it imports more than it exports. The difference between …
Trade War vs. Economic Sanctions: Key Differences
A trade war is a tariff fight; economic sanctions are a conduct fight. In a trade war, countries raise tariffs and trade barriers on each other to protect …
Training Your Team on Export Classification
Train your team on export classification by making it a defined, documented process — who owns it, what codes they assign, and how each decision is recorded — …
Training Your Team on HTS Import Classification
Import classification is the process of assigning each product the correct Harmonized Tariff Schedule code, and training your team to do it well is the single …
Transit Duties vs. Ad Valorem Duties
A transit duty is a charge on goods merely passing through a country on the way somewhere else; an ad valorem duty is an import tax calculated as a percentage …
Transportation & Logistics Compliance Checklist
Transportation and logistics compliance means satisfying every legal regime that touches your goods while they move — the carrier-safety rules enforced by the …
U.S. Food Laws: A Plain-English Guide for Importers
U.S. food law is built on one foundational statute — the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act — and split between two agencies, the FDA and the USDA, that …
U.S. Import Compliance Laws: A Practical Guide
U.S. import compliance is the set of legal duties that attach to your goods the moment they cross the border: classifying them correctly, declaring an honest …
U.S. Trade Compliance Laws & Regulations Explained
Trade compliance means following the U.S. federal laws that control how goods, technology, and money cross the border — chiefly customs rules on what you …
