Tips for the New Exporter Expanding in to the U.S. Market

This article was written for UK Trade and Investment to provide some tips to new UK exporters selling through the platform "Newegg" for delivery to your average American household.

Think being small means you don’t matter?  Think again!

All shipments arriving from outside of the United States pass through US Customs and the last thing you want to be is a company who is on their list of foreign suppliers to pay attention to.

You further don't want to be the supplier that creates a problem for your U.S. buyer as it could destroy your relationship with the buyer as well as harm your reputation and detract others from buying from you.

You therefore want to have your "ducks in order" with regards to legal compliance of the products you're selling into the US market, even if you're doing so in small quantities.

 Here are 5 tips to help you do that:

1) Recognize that the law applies to those who are selling and even offering to sell in the U.S.

·       That means that even if you have not sold anything, just by virtue of offering the merchandise for sale, it requires compliance with US laws.

·       Keep in mind that each shipment adds to your supplier profile with US Customs.  Though you may start out with “Newegg,” as your business expands your shipments to the U.S. will grow too and your sales here form a part of your export history recorded with U.S. Customs.

2) Understand that many of the products you want to sell may require testing and certification as to compliance with the U.S. law(s) over that category.  For example:

• ·      The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has oversight of many of these laws and you can go to www.cpsc.gov to learn more about how their rules might apply to your products, including toys and other children’s products

• ·      The US Food and Drug Administration has oversight of many food, health and beauty products, including cosmetics

• ·      The US Federal Trade Commission has oversight of clothing and home fashions, as well as marketing claims which may be placed on packaging or temporary labels 

3) Remember that compliance with these laws is required prior to its importation into the U.S.

• ·      While you may think of yourself as “just a seller,” if you’re selling to an individual, remember that they are relying on you to sell them a safe product that complies with U.S. law

• ·      If you’re selling to a reseller, or are trying to sell to one, then they may request from you proof of your compliance with U.S. laws, so you’ll need to have your conformity certificates in order to provide them to those vendors relying on you. 

4) Product compliance aside, there are import protocols which must be complied with such as the proper marking and valuation of the product, as well as invoicing so that US customs can asses the appropriate amount of duties on that particular product.

5) Remember, even though a shipment which has a value not exceeding $200 can enter the U.S. free of duties and other taxes, the marking, valuation, invoicing and product compliance rules all still apply and again, all of these must be correctly done when you (the exporter) ship your product out for export.

• ·       A watch for example, not only has multiple requirements in terms of marking different parts of it with its country of origin information, declaring a watch’s value is overly complicated and so both the physical stamping of the watch parts as well as the invoice need to be prepared in such a way that it meets US Customs regulatory compliance standards.

Questions/comments?  Post below or email Deanna at clark.deanna@gmail.com

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